Pottery shop

'Sixsmith, Dreamt I stood in a china shop so crowded from floor to far-off ceiling with shelves of porcelain antiquities etc. that moving a muscle would cause several to fall and smash to bits. Exactly what happened, but instead of a crashing noise, an august chord rang out, half-cello, half-celeste, D-major(?), held for four beats. My wrist knocked a Ming vase affair off its pedestal – E-flat, whole string section, glorious, transcendent, angels wept.'

Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books, full of lovely descriptive passages that inspire me so much! I chose some paragraphs to create storytelling paintings and this was the first one. Letters from Zedelghem is a tale within the book set in 1931 and tells a musician's story with richness of detail and full of creativity. I hope I can do more illustrations based on this book.

I included some pictures to show my workflow, starting with b&w thumbnails to set value structure and moving on to Color Keys to nail the mood and colors.