Yesterday I worked further on all the details to completion. Then the remainder of the day I worked on scanning the large piece (original is 40″x30″) and stitching it together (too big for a single scan).
It’s now done and available here.
Tag fairytale
new art completed – Hanslet & Gretel
work progress – fleshed in
It’s taking time, but I’m getting there. Yesterday was spent blocking in all the skin areas, first with colored pencils for color tones, then oil pastels to blend together and contour.
Today, I worked on skin details with the colored pencils and oil pastels. It’s close to completion, but still needs more details, and lots of clean up…
work progress – busy days painting
With such a large and relatively detailed piece, it’s no surprise that I’ve spent the last couple days working on all the painted areas. I started by tackling the cage. I tried using masking tape to give me clean, straight lines, but found it to be more tedious than just going freehand (plus the paint managed to leak under the tape a bit, so the edges weren’t all that clean anyway). With long, deep breaths I painted each line, using dark gray acrylic.
With that done, I painted the cane, streaking it with gouache washes of gray and tan. I then painted the stockings with washes of gray and flesh, first the witch’s, then the girls’ (plus the girls’ blouses). After that, I painted the shoes with black gouache, blending in some gray for lighter areas, and then white for the highlights. I also added some yellow and orange to the edge of the witch’s legs and shoes to reflect the fire in the oven.
Next, I painted the faces and hair with gouache. I painted Hanslet’s vest with black gouache, and then painted the skirts with blue and turquoise watercolors. I finished them with black colored pencils for the plaid design. Final step of these days was the textured gesso for the skin areas…
New art begins (in frustration)
It’s been a long week, and it’s still not over. I started a large concept/image on Tuesday, something I had been designing for a few months now. It’s inspired by the fairytale ‘Hansel & Grethel’, and since it involves two models, I’m using a large board (30×40″). Also, since it tells a story of sorts, and is an interior image, I need to create a full background.
So Tuesday I feel comfortable with the design enough to get it drawn on the board. In doing so, I managed to smudge the pencil all over the place, but at least it was drawn…
Model – Kneely (and Kneely)
The bars on the cage holding Hansel (or now Hanslet) are too thin to mask out with frisket, and I couldn’t trust masking fluid to keep straight lines, so I thought I would paint the bars in first, hoping they would show through the rest, then retouch them at the end. Well, I couldn’t keep my hands and brush smooth enough, so the lines were not looking good. Also, the smudging was getting worse, and it all built up enough frustration for me that I gave up on the piece for the day.
Wednesday, I looked at the mess and saw no smooth, clean way to make it work, so I trashed it. Now knowing my mistakes, I attempted it a second time. Drawn, I still needed to deal with the thin bars. This time I used a gray colored pencil with a ruler, making it dark enough to see later.
With that done, and being very careful not to smudge this time, I washed the whole board in clean water, hoping to fix the pencil into it.
Once dry, I began the long process of masking out nearly everything to paint the background wall. It’s to look like gingerbread, so I use burnt sienna mixed with some white, gray, yellow, and vermilion acrylics and airbrushed it over the entire wall. I went over it with burnt sienna alone to darken the edges of each of the gingerbread tiles. I then used a thin mix of burnt umber acrylic to dull and darken the floor, and then also add some shadows all around.
Once that was all dry, I removed the masking from the oven only. I painted the exposed interior with a gradient going from white, to florescent yellow, to florescent orange, to burnt sienna, creating the look of a hot furnace inside. I then painted the exterior with a mix of black and gray acrylics. I dry brushed lighter and darker tints in various areas to build up its shape and form (you can see where I would wipe off the excess paint on the masking frisket). I then removed the masking from the candy areas…
Today (Thursday), I started out by painting all the icing ‘mortar’ between each of the gingerbread tiles using a thick white acrylic. Then, I paint the giant gumdrops with watercolors in various colors, blotting them to create a little texture. Once all are painted and dry, I go over them each with thick white acrylic in tiny dots to create the sugar crystals.
Next, I painted the stripes in the big mint candies on the wall, one green and the other red. Then I used some white acrylic in the airbrush to fade the stripes from the centers, and also to add a bit of highlight on all the gumdrops. I painted the bit of ceiling in the upper left corner with various red-brown watercolors (should look like chocolate when finished). Finally, I used the burnt umber acrylic wash mix again and airbrushed the sides overall to give it a little more central focus and depth…
