Posted by Sherrie Thai of Shaire Productions.
I had the opportunity to catch Wicked last week--a visually compelling musical with a solid story--an interesting parallel to the classic L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz." The Flying Monkeys stood out to me as compelling subjects, so I viewed the original 1939 Judy Garland movie and lesser known adaptations: "Tin Man" and the "The Wiz" with the late Michael Jackson.
My version explores the displacement of the creatures. The Flying Monkeys are an unnatural evolution--torn between worlds, but expelling fear in their path. The glow from the Emerald City lights the sky. Like many of my fine art illustrations, the coloring was added through a variety of Photoshop layers after the graphite drawing was scanned. The fur was a bit challenging as there was quite a few layers of subtracting/adding graphite through the kneaded eraser and pencil.
