OMG October!

Holy moly, it's October already? Time's been flying by at warp speed for me here at school. So by way of an apology, here is an image dump of some of the things I've been working on:

Mock cover for The New Yorker about Iran's plans to send a cat to space.

Ink illustration for an Edward Lear limerick- can you guess which one?

Heh, this poor guy feels like the odd one out material-wise, but it turned out well enough. I enjoy working in ink, but I've been trying to hone my digital skills!

Meant to accompany an article about the death of Norway's small whaling communities.

Illustration for an article about royal cousins.

I'm also excited to have some of my pieces selected for the "Three Little Prints" show at Gallery Le Snoot; I've never exhibited before, so it'll be a new experience for me!

Color Study and a Mysterious Reference

Working on color studies- I think this one turned out pretty good; Ty Carter has some great insight into color relationships and painting from observation.

On a similar note, I've heard from dozens of sources that Alla Prima by Richard Schmid is an excellent reference book to have on hand- however, since it's been out of print for quite a while copies are selling for hundreds of dollars (seriously, look at those prices!) However, on Schmid's website it's been announced that an updated edition will be released sometime in the near future. I can't wait to get my hands on it, if it really is the "Holy Grail" that everyone says it is!

Teatime!

Hello! It's been a while since I put up the process for this illustration, so I figured I'd give you an update on what's going on.

 

Okay, so here's the original drawing- I had a huge roll of Saral Graphite Transfer Paper that I couldn't remember why I never use until I used it again- it's terrible! I don't know if I just got a crappy roll or what, but it barely transferred at all! Typically for these sorts of things I'll either use my lightbox (if it's a thinner paper that's not on a block or anything) or I'll just scribble a bunch of graphite on the back of the drawing and trace over it, which seems pretty reliable, but also screws up the original drawing. This was done on Arches Watercolor Board (CP), which has a slightly softer texture than Arches CP Paper.

Here are the initial stages. I attempted to use the acetate cut-outs for the first time, but as I left no border on this work (I really liked the space that this composition had and didn't want to change it), it was difficult to tape the acetate down without it buckling. It still helped to give me a masking for the sponging, which was one of my favorite parts of this, since I haven't really done a lot of sponging before. 

The white bits are always the most irritating part, especially if layering over a darker color.

"Teatime" - 8"x10" on Arches Watercolor Board

And here is the (pretty much) finished work. As you can see, I made several adjustments from the original color study. As I moved along I quickly realized that the background wasn't as dark as it should have been, which would have resulted in Lady Mouse being lost in that white dress, so I changed it to a darker grey color. One of the most helpful things that I can think of to improve a painting is to get a different perspective on your work - Empty Easel has a terrific article on this, and I use the mirror trick quite often (as well as the "put it away and see if I hate it later" method!)

Process for Teatime

I've been thinking a lot about the process that I go through for creating a piece (in this case, it's going to be a gouache painting); I'm still fairly fluid in this and haven't nailed down a specific method yet, but it goes a little like this:

First I start with an idea. I really, really love tea and was thinking about the phrase "tea adventure". After thumbnailing a few compositional ideas (I initially wanted this to be a landscape piece), I felt that this one worked the best, so I fleshed it out a bit more (this was originally done in red pencil, which I'm really liking at the moment, then scanned in grayscale to further work with.)

Then I move into a value study. Well, I sort of cheat when I'm working digitally and switch back and forth from color to value while I work, so I can tweak things as I go- I do this by placing a layer filled with white on top and setting it to "color" mode- then toggling it on and off.

Here are the various color studies that I went through; these are more fine tweaking, since I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, but I spent a lot of time waffling with the sky and clouds, since I wanted them to stand off the background a little without distracting from the mice. This is the best part about working in Photoshop- it takes little to no time to change small things.

You might also notice that the last two have a bit more detail than the first two- I wanted to add as much of the detail that I would have in the actual painting, including texture.

Time to get to work! I want to try out cutting the shapes out with film and using various brush and sponge techniques to give my work a little more texture, much like the great Scott Wills, who painted many of the backgrounds for Samurai Jack.

Wish me luck!

Air Mail Delivery!

6" x 8", Ink on Watercolor Paper

I was experimenting with animals and aviation the other day (you know, like you do), and this little guy appeared!

I used ink on Fluid Watercolor Paper block, which I used for the first time; I think the most interesting aspect is that while it is indeed a block, it's only adhered on two of the four sides, which amounts to a slight bit of buckling, but for the price (I think I paid around $6.00 or so), it's really a steal for small sketches or doodles. It also has a quite pleasing texture- not as rough as Arches, but more like Fabriano. I like it!

Spacegirl and Bird Thing

 
This summer has been quite different for me so far- it's the first time in several years that I haven't been taking classes, so I'm just experimenting with various techniques and ideas on my own time!

This one started out as a doodle of a girl on a rocket-scooter, and slowly developed into a young explorer unaware of her close follower! I was mostly using the lasso tool for shapes.

It's terrific living in a town with so many art store options; my hometown had pretty much just a Michael's and an AC Moore, and I often ended up having to order things online. But no more! There's a Blick store, Utrecht, and the school's bookstore, which also has a ton of stuff and an adorable little cafe in the back. It's so nice to know that there's really not a whole lot that I can't find these days.

Shiba Inu

 

There are a lot of Shiba owners in town. One of my favorite breeds- they always look so happy!.