Monday, June 17, 2013

Horoscope Honeys Part 5

Today I'll demonstrate my painting process for the calendar a bit. In an attempt to save time I actually painted all the pieces simultaneously, production line style. So for instance, I would mix my first color then apply that color to all of the pieces that would contain it, then I'd mix the second color then apply it to all the pieces that would contain that one. And so on. I think it really did save me time, and it gave the calendar a nice uniformity to all the pieces.

I usually make an enlargement of my pencil drawing to transfer onto the watercolor paper via light box. I then like to take that copy and draw on top of it a lighting study which will be my guide when I paint the shading.


After all the art is transferred I paint all the line art.


As you can see, I completed all of the line art across all of the pieces (reusing as many of the colors as possible) before moving on to the next stage.


Next is the underpainting. I use acrylic wash to slowly build up all the shading and values.


Again, I do this for all the pieces.


Lastly I apply Luma concentrated watercolor. It's completely transparent so it retains all of the acrylic shading perfectly.
Capricorn
Pisces

Of course this whole process took me weeks because there are twelve pieces (plus a bonus) but I finished them all at the same time!

7 comments:

  1. Can I ask what sort of inks you're using to do your lineart? The crispness and color retention is killer, and I'm definitely someone who prefers to do lines before colors.

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  2. The line art is also acrylic wash. Applied with a no. 18 Blick Masterstroke Finest Red Sable Round brush.

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  3. Super cool of course. These are coming along great. Do you have a jar of marshmallows on your drawing table for emergencies?

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  4. Jeez this is great, thank you for sharing your process and the tools you use! :)

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  5. Mike,
    Good eye! The marshmallows are for toasting. What you are seeing is not an art table but the top of a huge 100 year old flat file that's in my living room. Near the fireplace. Which is where the toasting happens.

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  6. I was fun seeing these come to life over the past few weeks, thank you for explaining the process as well ..

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