"The Hermit King" illustration

The Hermit King debut on 5.11.2020

This piece was for the talented Alex Hovey's draw this in your own style challenge. It took a little over a month for completion. With a total 40 hours of inking and 10 days of filming. I had began this piece because I really liked the concept behind it. I was contemplating this hermit crab becoming a royal King of the Sea. In juxtaposition it could also be symbolic of anyone believing in themselves so much, that one day he would wear the crown of success amongst the sea of his peers. But there could also be many interpretations of this piece. What's yours?

I tried out a new process of drawing the original sketch on Vellum first. Drawing on the vellum would allow me to make edits of composition, lighting, line work and correct any structural errors with white out or white jellie pen.. I got carried away with inking too many details of the initial sketch and ended up just drawing everything. I also wanted to try out my new light box and draw over the initial sketch to have better than normal line work. Well after this inking was completed the first time, I had this brilliant idea to film it for YouTube! and then edit it for use on TikTok and Instagram. The problem was, inking over another inking doesn't look too good on film. Because you can't see anything happening! The image is just too blacked out. So now I had the dilemma of redrawing the entire piece first in pencil and then with the final ink so that it looked natural on film. Well this process took up a good 40 hours for the end result. I have to say it was quite a challenge of endurance and patience. But I believe the end result was all worth it. I definitely learned a few things never to do again, like ink on vellum to trace on camera. And I got a better understanding of the use of lights and shadows when inking. Also tried out a new method of using the French curve to create the sun rays. All in all, I'm proud of this art piece. You can see the full timelapse here on my YouTube channel.

Thanks everyone,

-Alex Dakos