I spent yesterday detailing everything, including adding browns and some black to the foreground landscape. I used blue colored pencils in the hair, which proved a bit of a nuisance when fine dust from it drifted into the skin of the face. I was able to clear it off before it ruined anything, luckily. In the future, I may mask off the oil pastels when using pencils to avoid such troubles. That, or I need a little vacuum attachment for my pencils. Life on Io
I waited until this morning to call it finished, just to be sure I haven’t missed anything. It’s available now here in the store.
Tag Io
new art completed today – “Life on Io”
work progress – blocking in the skin
I spent the evening yesterday working on a new concept design, so I didn’t get as far as I could’ve with this piece. I did manage to get all the skin blocked in and ready for final detailing. As is my usual, I used colored pencils and oil pastels to fill in each area of flesh after masking them out.
Now that I have everything colored in, I can see the overall tone of the piece, and I see the foreground landscape needs more detail and contrast. It’s difficult for me to envision how to create distance on a world that has little atmosphere (ie on Earth, distant landscapes get lighter and a bit blue). Looking at Moon photos, seems it’s all about detail, so that’s what I’ll try to do. I think the model has enough color to keep focus on her even if the ground has a good deal of detail…
work progress – painting the foreground
Last night and all today I worked on all the painted areas. I blotted and scrubbed in some browns and reds into the landscape’s rocks to give them more presence and form. I also tried some bright yellow and white for highlights. I then moved on to the model, starting with her face, painting in the eyes and mouth. She’ll have some wild long lashes in the end, but since I have to add oil pastels onto the skin around it, I only roughed them in for now. Next, I painted the hair using ultramarine blue, black, and violet. I’ll use colored pencils and perhaps more paint later for highlights and more texture. I outlined the edges of all the kin areas, and washed in some skin tone in the smaller areas (face, abdomen, left arm and leg).
I then started on the transparent rings on her outfit. I mixed a violet blue with the color that would be behind it wherever is was to give it that transparent look. Once everything else is colored, I’ll come back and finesse the colors here as well as add highlights to them.
All that remained was the uniform itself. I started using gouache to paint the top in, but decided I wanted sparkles, so I masked it all out and went to the airbrush. I mixed various shades/tints of the magenta and built up the layers to form the top and shorts. I used white for some highlights, although I’ll use a paintbrush later to get the solid white highlights. I finished the magenta areas with red ‘sparkle’ acrylic.
Once dry, I covered the magenta area and unmasked the gloves and boots. Before starting the airbrushing, I used some colored pencils to mark the designs and details in, especially in the boots. Then I mixed a variety of yellow-greens and covered those areas. I finished them with a mix of florescent yellow and green ‘sparkles’…
work progress – forming the background
Last night I masked out the image and began working on the background. First, I painted some burnt sienna gouache in a wash over some of the darker details of the planet and moon. This will add a bit of texture as well as keep a perspective on the areas when I cover them with the airbrush. With enough lines painted in, I mixed a dull light pink acrylic and covered the entire planet. Next, I mixed in some burnt sienna, burnt umber, and more red for a darker pink, which I sprayed mostly along the edge of the planet, but also a few streaks and details throughout it. I mixed orange next, using the leftover paint and adding vermilion, which I used on the ‘eye’ and the main streaks of the planet. To finish the planet, I mixed a dark orange by adding burnt umber to the leftover mix, and sprayed the darkest details and shading. I also used this mix across the space over the moon, simulating its thin atmosphere. Completing the top ‘half’, I mixed a near-black acrylic (black, burnt umber and magenta) and covered the outer space, fading toward the moon’s surface, as well as going a bit into the planet to fade its edge.
Today, I worked on the moon. I started by using some colored pencils to create some surface details, both distant and near. Then I mixed a ‘dirty’ yellow acrylic and airbrushed the entire area. I then added some burnt sienna to the mix and began contouring the surface. Adding more sienna and some burnt umber, and continued with darker details. Then I mixed a light turquoise and airbrushed a few areas (not my intention, but it now looks a bit like lakes).
Once all was dry, I used an eraser to pull up some of the paint for a bit of highlights. I think the near background of the moon will need a bit more detail, as it currently looks like a simple illustration to me. I don’t want too much detail to pull focus, but this little lessens the overall look, I think…
new artwork begins
Last night I got the final piece to the puzzle of the composition for this new piece. I was watching a show about the solar system, and in it they showed a slideshow video of the moons of Jupiter orbiting it. This gave me a better idea of the scale between the moons and Jupiter, and I saw how I might change my design a bit. This piece takes place on Io, with Jupiter in the sky, and many portrayals of this imagery would show it not much bigger than our moon. I had it a bit bigger, but still small enough to see it in its entirety in the sky. I’ve enlarged it 4x to nearly fill the sky now, and although still far from an accurate scale, it helps fulfill the composition of this piece. So, satisfied with the design, I’ve finally drawn it on one of my illustration boards, ready for paint…
model – Gia
