Horoscope Honeys Part 10

The final Horoscope Honeys post.
Scorpio and Sagittarius.

Line art:




Underpainting:




Finals:

Scorpio

Sagittarius

I did my color study for each piece on the same sheet as I went. Since I painted them all production line style it was useful to help me figure out where to reuse the same colors for different purposes.

Horoscope Honeys Part 9

Progressions! Virgo and Libra!

Line art:


Underpainting:


Finals:

Virgo

Libra

Horoscope Honeys Part 8

Let's get back to some progressions. Taurus and Aries this time.

Line art:


Underpainting:


Finals:

Taurus

Aries

Horoscope Honeys Part 7

Tomorrow is the big day at Gallery Nucleus. Hope to see you there!

And now, some more progressions.

Line art:


Underpainting:


Finals:

Aquarius

Leo

Horoscope Honeys Part 6

This weekend is my Horoscope Honeys gallery show and calendar release at Gallery Nucleus. If you're in the LA area please drop in, see the original art and get a calendar. Or heck, buy the original art. It's for sale too!

A few more progressions for your enjoyment.

Line art:


Underpainting:


Finals:

Gemini

Cancer

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!

Gone Fishin' Part 3

I like using acrylic wash because it has the look of watercolor but it doesn't reactivate when it gets wet. This way I can do all my values and modeling first in a way that can't get messed up, then I apply the brighter but much more delicate concentrated watercolor as the final step to add all the chroma.

As you can see below I start adding the concentrated watercolor to her skin, then bathing suit next. I do the light colors first because if I did it the other way around there's the danger of the dark color bleeding into the lighter. At this stage I don't attempt any modeling, I only lay in the concentrated watercolor as flat tones. Modeling will only mess it up. The Lumas are completely translucent so the acrylic washes underneath show through perfectly. Next I move on to the orange of her hair and the blues for the fish and the ocean and sky.

I always paint a test subject simultaneously. I try my colors on the test first and if it looks a little off I can fix it for the real piece.

And here's a scan of the final art.

Gone Fishin' Part 2

The first thing I do after finishing the drawing is transfer it via light box onto the watercolor paper. Then I "ink" it with acrylic paint to make the line work as you can see on the left. In the right image you can see I started to lay in the shadows on the girl. This is all acrylic wash.

It's hard to tell, but on the left I strengthened the core shadows in the same areas. On the right I added the shadows to the fish and the ocean.

On the left here you can see a printout where I drew some test clouds in before painting them in on the right.

And here is a scan of the underpainting. This is as far as I take it with acrylic washes. Next post I'll bring it to final with concentrated watercolor.

Gone Fishin'

Recently I finished a pin up painting for a friend, who as you can see, is into fishing. I have a tendency to post my finished pieces before the early stages, but this time I think I'll go in order.

These are my rough concepts for the piece.

We went with that last one, then I tied it down as you can see here.