The Tower of Babel artwork (Start - 8 hours)
My latest personal project is to re-create the great “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel (1563). I am not trying to copy exactly, but rather paint in Photoshop by reference. I am using a reference image 1061px x 800px and creating the artwork to at least A4 at print resolution. I thought it might be interesting to show how it builds up and whether it turns out to be a success.
The original:
After 2 hours
I started with a sketch of the main components and thought about which areas to complete first. My approach for this project will mainly be background to foreground and I started by colouring by entire canvas a rich brown.
I then added a preliminary amount of detail into the clouds and the start of the horizon. I also experimented with the foreground corner to get a feel for how it will look.
To give a bit more texture and feel as I paint I have also added a texture effect, by having a noise layer and canvas effect layer with low opacity set to “Overlay”.
The artwork after 2 hours:
The next step was to start sketching in the tower itself. I added a grid to divide both the reference image and my artwork into 36 and took a block one at a time with both images side by side. I then realised exactly how much work I will have to do and the shear excellence and beauty of the original painting.
Below is the artwork after 4 hours, with much sketching still required!
This picture is so big! I got bored of sketching so came back to the more interesting foreground, with the King giving some poor worker a telling off. All in all I have probably spent 8 hours on this project and I do not even want to think about how many more lay ahead! That said, I am very pleased with the progress so far and the overall look.
Below is the artwork after 8 hours:
June 14th, 2007 at 10:28 am
This is coming on a treat! By my estimations, only another 100 hours solid work!
I’m not so sure the king is telling that worker off - I believe it is a topless medieval shoe shiner.