This whole week has been fraught with problems, perhaps this piece has been cursed. It started with the design, which I mentioned in the previous post, and each step though-out the process has had its troubles (culminating in the death of my computer just as I was beginning to upload the completed image).
Now that it’s done, and the computer is back, I will now go through the steps and hopefully it was worth all the trouble in the end.
With the design worked out, I drew it on the illustration board…
model -Jill
It took almost two days, but I completed the background. I started it by masking out the image, then airbrushing the entire board with gray acrylics for a base. I wanted to create the illusion of motion, so at first I tried washing of acrylic paint, but I couldn’t find a happy medium between soft edges and strong enough color. Next, I resorted to colored pencils. I have much more control with them, but the board’s texture bothers me. Still, it looks okay, so I proceed. Once the majority of it is done, I go back over it with a wash of gray on a big brush, creating streaks. Sadly, this step caused a real headache later, when I removed the masking to see this wash had seeped in between the cuts in the masking, leaving gray blobs all over. More on that in a moment. Next, I mixed an amber/ochre acrylic and painted the caution stripe on the ground, and also on the subway’s steps. I added a variety of other colors here and there with acrylics to brighten the subway a bit more, blurring it with my finger when possible. To complete the background, I airbrushed a gray-black on the right side to create distance, and also beneath the model for her shadow.
Once dry, I removed the masking and saw the gray leaks. This wouldn’t be so bad for the skin areas, since the oil pastels can cover fairly well. But the dress and hair needed to be light, so I feared it would become a real problem. So, I used a white acrylic and coated the entire model, knowing it would affect the look of everything I put on top of it…
The next day I began on the foreground paint. The acrylic white I used now made it difficult to use my normal techniques – watercolor washes were more inclined to wash off than blend in, colored pencils had to work against the brush strokes. As such, the hair became a challenge, and I continued to work on it up until the very end. The eyes luckily worked, and the mouth wasn’t too bad, although I reworked the lips a few more times. The gray blobs along the edge of the dress still showed too much, so instead of a wash for color, I mixed a cream colored acrylic and painted it thick enough to be opaque (numerous coats). I added the creases, wrinkles and shadows later with acrylics. The top was also tricky, as it was sheer and also in shadow. Working the color against the white background on the skin was difficult to moderate (it seemed very dark). I added a wash of flesh over the skin areas to help give me perspective.
Next, I masked around the legs and airbrushed the stockings, starting with a mix of flesh acrylic, then building up darker browns to create the contour. I finished the day painting the skin areas with textured gesso…
The next day (when I wrote the previous post) I blocked in the skin, using colored pencils and oil pastels. This step was not without its troubles. The gesso on top of the white acrylic was uneven, so some areas didn’t cover as smoothly and easily as others. Luckily, these rough spots were small and limited, so I was able to get through it all…
I spent all of Wednesday working on the details, trying to figure out if this piece would ever work out. I took numerous breaks, as I was losing perspective of what looked right. By the end of the night I felt it was salvaged, and might even be good. Thursday, I had it scanned, and was ready to upload it when my computer broke down. I spent the entire day going from shop to shop, trying to work out went was wrong, and how it could get fixed fast. The issues are far from over, but I have a working computer today, and finally have the files uploaded. I will post the completed piece next.
