Last night and today I spent working on all the paint areas. I started with the face, painting the eyes and lips with mostly gouache (and some watercolor on the lips). Next, I painted the hair, working layer after layer to build up the depth, darkness, and apparent detail (I don’t attempt to capture every hair, but rather try to give it a natural texture).
I then painted the black leather of the bra with watery layers of black and gray gouache. The highlights are mostly the paper showing through, so it’ll have a slightly different color tone than the skirt. The skirt was next, but once again I had trouble facing a large area with water. I just can’t get a smooth coat of color across without either the water evaporating, or the brush leaving streaks. Before getting overly frustrated, I masked it off and reverted to airbrush. Starting with black acrylic, I coated the area lightly, then built it up until the shadow areas were near solid. I then mixed some gray and turquoise in and hit the mid-toned areas. On the next pass, I kept adding more and more white to the mix, working up the highlights softly. I then decided to go for the ’sparkle’ finish, so I mixed steel and aqua iridescent acrylics and sprayed over the whole skirt, hitting the highlighted areas more than the shadows.
Once all that was dry, I used some acrylic black with a brush to define the creases in the material more. While I had it out, I mixed the black with a lot of water and washed the leopard spots on the bra (I played around with a few other patterns, but this still worked the best for me). Next, I mixed a turquoise-green gouache and washed it over the bra. I dry-brushed a bit on top of this with the same color to give it a hint of fur texture. I may use some colored pencils later to enhance that further. I finished out the leopard print with a wash of green within the spots.
The final bit I did today was adding white highlights to the skirt. If I have time still tonight, I hope to get the textured gesso down on the skin areas so I can begin blocking that in tomorrow…
Tag gouache
work progress – painting it up
work progress – paint work done
Last night I painted the I.V. bag and stand, using gouache and watercolors. For ease of accessibility, I had the board upside down. Not only is it easier to get to then, but it changes my perception of what I’m painting, freeing me to get the details without interpretation. The stand is simple, so there’s not a lot to misinterpret, but still, it’s nice every once in a while. I also had time to paint the path lines on the floor, using gouache.
Today, I’m having some service work done to the house, so I was up early. I managed to complete the remainder of the paint work already, including the textured gesso for the skin, and the day’s only half over. I thought the pinstripes of the nurse outfit would be a long chore, but it went rather smoothly. It still needs some little touches of highlights and shadows to complete it, but the worst is over. The hair was fairly normal/typical, with no troubles along the way. The eyes and mouth may need further work, depending how they look against the finished skin. I once again edged all the painted areas with skin tone to ease the blending later, but not knowing exactly what the skin tone will end up being this time, it may not be of much help…
Since I have to wait for the gesso to thoroughly dry before starting the skin, I will work on t-shirt designs the rest of the day.
work progress – paint
I spent the day working on all the paint areas, and I think I got it all done. I started with the facial features (no eyes open, so they were an easy brown line each), and then hair using gouache. For the hair, I had to first use a solid white gouache to brighten the loose hairs that were covered by the airbrushed background, then I added ochres and gray lightly in streaks. Next, I painted the vest, goggles, and shoes with black gouache. I washed over it with a turquoise, then added solid white for highlights. The chain in the middle was painted with thin, light lines of gray gouache (I may fine tune them later, after the skin is completed).
Where the stockings would go on the legs, I painted skin tone with gouache, then roughed in some browns to create a bit of contour. I washed over them again, this time with some red. I then used colored pencils (dark red) and drew the fishnets. Next, I painted the red ribbons of her ‘uniform’, followed by the pink. I did both the same, starting with a solid but light wash of the color, then built up a few more washes for the darker areas, and finally used solid white gouache for the highlights. I also used the pink wash for the goggle lenses, mixing in some gray to dull them and give them some contour, and again white for the highlights.
With time left in the evening, I was able to cover the skin areas with the textured gesso, so tomorrow I can get right into the flesh…
work progress – paint
Last night I started working on the paint, starting with the face and hair. The hair still needs a few more layers for detail, but is blocked in and serves to represent the color and value of the area. Next, I painted the apple, then the shoes. I finished the night painting the ruler.
Today, I applied a wash of orange across the blouse, and another wash of black across the skirt. I repeated these washes to build up the depth and detail in each. The next step was to apply the textured gesso to the skin areas, and since the skin will be darker, I added a bit of burnt sienna to the mix. The downside of adding color to the clear gesso is all the brush strokes show. So, the skin doesn’t look pretty at the moment, but it’ll all get covered by the oil pastels soon enough…
work progress – troubling paint work, but moving forward
It seems what I gained in Thursday’s productivity was lost yesterday and today. Friday started fine, with painting more details in the hair and skirt, and then painting the feather duster. I had been wondering what method to use for the stockings. Airbrushing is my common way, since it creates a nice subtle texture that differs from the skin in the end. But I had already removed all the masking, I hadn’t cut pieces to go around the stockings only. So, I foolishly thought I could get away with painting it. There isn’t that much detail, so if I applied the gouache in a watery layering method, it should work. I should know better by now that me and paint (on anything besides small detail areas) no longer work well together. I still don’t know why things go as bad as they do, but they continue to do so each and every time. This time, I couldn’t get it to blend well enough, so I added more paint, but that made a bigger mess. I ended up covering both legs in a flat skin tone and let it dry. I figured I could still salvage it by airbrushing over it. I cut new masking, then began airbrushing acrylic over the gouache. The gouache dried darker than I wanted (at least for the light areas) so I needed to get the acrylic fairly solid over it to bring it up. Well, the airbrush mix was too watery and began to run down the masking. I blotted best I could, but it wasn’t drying all too fast on the board either. I think the gouache beneath held some of the water instead allowing it to dry. I consider that an odd thing though, since when I typically paint with gouache, it dries before I can get more than an inch of paint on an area. The paint gods are having quite the laugh at my expense, it seems.
So, I finish the airbrushing, but it’s not looking right at all. And to worsen things, when I remove the masking, it pulls up some paint (lucky it’s not strong enough to pull paper, too!). There also was some leaking beneath the edges of the masking, so that’s going to be a bit of work to fix.
My only choice now is to color the legs with oil pastels, so I paint on the textured gesso over them (and cover all the skin areas as well)…
Today, I got going on the oil pastels, starting at the top (head) and working down, section by section. For the skin areas, I used colored pencils for the color and then oil pastels to blend. For the stockings though, since they already had a dark base now. I went directly with the oil pastels. This also should give them a slightly different color palette than the skin, and hopefully keep them looking like stockings and not just bare legs.
Before I could finish today, though, the paint came back to haunt me once more. I had blocked off the feet with masking (I couldn’t reuse the masking from yesterday, as that stuff was ruined) to protect the white of the shoes from the pastels. As I peeled them off, the left foot pulled up the paint and gesso from the stocking area of the foot. I’ve cleaned it off and re-applied the gesso, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow now to get the pastels on there.
Otherwise, all the skin and stocking areas are now covered, and I can get to the detailing tomorrow (hopefully finishing the whole piece)…
work progress – airbrush and paint starts
Yesterday was a productive day. After getting the drawing done in the morning, I was able to mask and airbrush the background in the afternoon. I used a light tint mix of magenta acrylic for most of it, with the bottom section a light tint of magenta mixed with vermilion acrylic. I added a few darker streaks on an angle to give it some style, then finished it with a mix of pearl and red ’sparkles’. Once dry, I removed the masking, then outlined everything in relative colors to the area (ie sienna brown for the skin, gray for the white pieces, tan for the stockings)…
Later in the day I began painting. I worked on the face, adding some flesh around the eyes and mouth to ease the blend of the oil pastels later. Then I painted the hair with black and some brown gouache. I continued the black into the bra, mixing some flesh and brown for the sheer panel on the side. Before painting the skirt, I blocked in some dark flesh where the legs are underneath. Then I added the skirt in streaking lines, giving it a woven and lace design. It still needs a bit more, I think. Again, I added some flesh around the edges of everything for the blending.
New Art finished – ‘Lakshmi’
Today I worked on all the details – the face, hands in oil pastels, then the headdress and sari trim details in gouache. It’s completed, and now available here.
work progress – paintwork
Yesterday morning I masked and airbrushed the background using a mix of yellow, orange and burnt sienna acrylics…
Once dry, I re-masked to cover all but the sari, which I then airbrushed with a mix of crimson red, vermilion, and white. Then I removed all masking and began painting. I added fold details to the sari with gray and red gouache. I painted the trim with a variety of ochre and yellow gouaches, followed by yellow acrylic for the design. Next, I painted the face and hair with gouache, followed by the rough in of the head piece. I then began painting the lotus flowers, first the small ones in the hands, then the big one below.
All of this went quite smoothly, but then I started to use some white acrylic for highlights in the eyes and to paint in the earrings, and trouble began. I needed it opaque, so I had to keep it somewhat thick, and consequently it was difficult to control. This strikes me strange, since I’ve been painting longer than I have been working with oil pastels, so I would think something so simple would be second nature to me. Maybe the brushes need replacing, or my mind is losing the techniques I once knew…I don’t know. In any case, it proved frustrating, so I gave up a bit early last night (thus why the blog is today, not then). Luckily nothing was harmed, so when I came back to it today, I could continue without trouble. I added a bit more to the big lotus, and then applied the textured gesso to the skin areas, making it ready for the next step – pencils and pastels…
work progress – airbrush and paint
I masked out the image this morning, then airbrushed dark blue-purple acrylic over most of the background, leaving an oval near the center. I added more blue and black and sprayed the top and bottom areas, then a final black-red for the top and bottom edges. I finished the background with cerulean blue acrylic in that oval center. I really like how purple and this blue go together.
Before removing the masking, I hit around her shoes with a burnt umber wash for a shadow, and go around the ‘halo-horns’ with white to give them a glow…
As you may have noticed (if you compare to the drawing in yesterday’s blog) that I didn’t mask out the wings. I didn’t want any hard edge to show, as I wanted the feathers to flow into the background naturally. So, While everything’s still masked out, I paint the wings in with solid red and magenta acrylics. I build them up from a medium to light tint, giving them depth and texture. To finish them, I airbrushed a bit of burnt umber for the shadow around the body.
Next, I remove the masking and begin painting the ‘halo-horns’. I used a pearl iridescent acrylic, followed by a yellow wash of gouache. This should keep them bright and ’shiny’. I then paint the face and hair with gouache, followed by the panties, and finally the shoes.
Tonight I should get to covering the skin areas with the textured gesso, so tomorrow I can start on blocking all that in…
work progress – finishing the paint step
Today I worked on completing the painted areas, starting where I left off yesterday, the garters. I used black gouache, thinning it a little toward the right edge for highlight. I then used the same paint for the shoes, again thinning for lighter areas. Next, I used green watercolor to paint the bottle, mixing in some black for the base and shaded areas. I added some light ochres and yellow for the foil on the top of the bottle.
I decided to once again airbrush the stockings, so I masked them off, then used a mix of flesh tone acrylics to form the shape of the legs. Once dry, I removed the masking, then began the tedious task of drawing in the pattern with dark brown colored pencil.
To finish the day, I used white gouache to highlight the shoes and bottle…
