Friday, January 28, 2011

Moonlight Ambush

Moonlight Ambush - Acrylic on canvas, 15" x 12"

The soldiers of the American Revolution were not ones to surrender. A few years back I had a fun assignment for Boys' Life magazine to illustrate a historical fiction piece in which a main character gets taken hostage by the British Redcoats. In a brave midnight ambush, his fellow countrymen storm the farm where he is being held captive and rescue him. In this piece I wanted to give a bit of an homage to a couple of my favorite Golden Age illustrators who were both masters of dramatic historical subject matter- Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth. Any similarity to their iconic work is purely intentional.

8 comments:

CR Ing said...

Incredible attention to detail and coloration! It very much has the appearance of a period piece: a geniune Wyeth or Pyle. The first thing I thought of when I saw the thumbnail for this was 'Washington Crossing the Delaware.' I'm happy to say that I wasn't disappointed.

adam taylor said...

This is great! I really like the texture of your strokes.

froggie is... said...

and did you EVER! this totally smacks of wyeth - great work! :-))

MrBibleHead said...

Wow Greg! Amazing work and terrific homage to a couple of greats!

Curious Art said...

Definite overtones of Wyeth & Pyle, yet with a modern touch as well.

Hans_77 said...

this is amazing I love the colours you've used on this gives the characters warmth against the snow.

Unknown said...

This was a fun one. I enjoyed the process of incorporating enough "homage" elements to tip the balance toward my idols Wyeth and Pyle.

Bella Sinclair said...

Oh my goodness, your work is ridiculously fantastic!