Working with multiple mediums has its advantages, but also many challenges. My greatest one is finding paper textures that work well with all of the mediums. I’ve been working mostly with ‘hot press’ because it doesn’t have much of any texture, so airbrush, pencils and paint all look nice and smooth. The trouble is the oil pastels go on too thin (transparent), so I’ve always had to use a textured gesso in those areas (typically just the skin).
I recently picked up a few varieties of different papers to try out. For this new piece, I’m using a cold press illustration board from Arches. The concept for this piece is another comic book inspired idea. A sexy woman in tight black wardrobe, holding a pistol…

model – Gia

I masked out the image, then began airbrushing the background. First I mixed a light green/turquoise acrylic and covered the entire board. Next, I mixed a darker version (no green, just turquoise, blue and a bit of black) and worked around the edges inward, avoiding the star pattern as I went along. It wasn’t as dark as I had wanted, so I mixed some more black and ultramarine into it and again worked inward…

The paper texture has begun to show, but it’s not bothering me.

Next, I spent a couple days painting, since only a small amount of the image will be skin. I painted the face first, using gouache, then the hair with a mix of gouache and watercolors, building up layers of color. I painted the pistol and the leg-strapped holster with various dark grays, adding some black and white for shadows and highlights.
This paper holds water nicely, giving me some time to actually spread and blend the paint before it embeds itself, causing edging. This allowed me to cover the outfit in a smooth gradient from light gray to dark blue-black. Still, it didn’t have quite the look I wanted, so I re applied the masking around those areas, then used the airbrush to finesse the look. White highlights complete the outfit…