Tintin Painting

I’m at the beginning of an idea for my next painting which was to be a very formal posed portrait of Tintin the Explorer, returned from his travels. I thought I’d start with an action sketch of our hero in a snow storm, then bring him back home to the studio seated before a dramatic backdrop. But then this frame caught my eye from Tintin in Tibet, so I roughed it up to see if I might be able to make it into a painting….

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Hmm.. something like this might work if I can get the right photographic reference material. I think Snowy might need stay at home though.

THE STORY SO FAR….

I took the early bird train from Ashford to Brussels this morning and made my way to Rue de Sables and the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Arts to dig into the Tintin archives to see if I could find out a little more about the image I have chosen to base my painting upon. I could scarcely believe my luck when I came across this photograph of the Tintin himself, in an almost identical situation. These stills hardly ever surface and I’m guessing this is the snap that Hergé used as reference for his beautiful drawing. The guys at the museum very kindly lent me the original, it will be an invaluable resource for my painting….