PULL THE VIEWER INTO YOUR PAINTING the viewer into your painting

Discover how BROM uses elements of contrast, lighting and detail to introduce the viewer to a character from Lost Gods, his latest illustrated novel

Somewhere in my early 30s my love of painting began to wane. I found the cover work that I was doing to be repetitive and confining. I longed for more creative control and craved a vehicle to showcase my own characters and situations.

I’ve always considered myself a storyteller, whether through pictures or words, so the combination of the two seemed a natural progression. I dug out some of the stories I’d outlined over the years and started pecking away at them. My obsessiveness took over and the prose began to flow. Soon I couldn’t wait to paint the characters and settings that I was writing about.

Interestingly, my time spent developing stories on the page revitalised my enthusiasm for painting. I’ve found that the two disciplines feed off one another, that I love the creative back-andforth that bringing a story to life in two mediums can provide.

Now, some 20 years and five illustrated novels later, I’ve just completed my latest, Lost Gods, which is due out in the summer of 2016 from HarperCollins. This is Lord Kashaol, one of the characters from Lost Gods. In this portrait I use a range of painting techniques and elements to draw in the viewer, leading them to discover the subtle details.