With the background done, I began work on the brush painting. I painted the face using gouache, then blocked in the hair with watercolors. This paper doesn’t absorb very quickly (or just not much), so the watercolor began wiping up as much as it was putting down, curtailing further layers of build-up for the moment. I continued then onto the bow and dress, using a mix of pink watercolor and opera pink gouache (adding in purple and gray for the shading). Black was used for the dress’s straps/belt, as well as the deepest shadows for the hair and under the dress. I lightly washed the socks with gray gouache, then mixed a charcoal gray acrylic to block in the shoes. I’ll come back later to add blacks and whites to build out the contours and highlights (highlights seen in this photo are reflected from the camera flash, not actually painted). I went back to the hair with more layers, then finished it using colored pencils.
Finally, I coated the skin areas with flesh color, and then the textured gesso, priming it for oil pastels…
Tag watercolor
work progress – paint
New art added today – “Tangled Up for the Holidays”
I started the day painting in the lights. I then went ahead and airbrushed the glow around them so I would have a better idea what I was dealing with for the skin. Once done, I saw how little exposed skin actually remained. Add to it the knowledge that the lights would affect the shadowing overall, I could see that using oil pastels was really not necessary. For the face though, I treated it as any other piece, so it did get blocked in with colored pencils and oil pastels. I thought the color might be noticeably different than the airbrushed body, but was pleased to see them blend together quite nicely. I finished the details in the face, then added a few washes of brown in a few areas of the skin to bring out the lights even more. I created shadows on the ground first with graphite pencil, then a light wash of gray gouache. Next, I added some highlights to the lights to pop them out, then finished the piece with a scruffing of green watercolor paint on the tree to give it just a bit of texture.
I let it sit for an hour or two, then took a fresh look at it and feel it is now complete. So, I’ve scanned it and it is now available here.
Tangled Up for the Holidays
work progress – painting the foreground
Today was very productive despite the usual frustrations with the paint. I started with the apple, using watercolors for the green, adding a bit of blush red gouache to complete it. I may add in a few speck details to the skin later using colored pencils, but for now it’s close enough to done. Next, I painted the face with gouache, then blocked in the hair with a black gouache wash. I block in the blue bow and midriff of the dress with blue and a hint of aqua gouache. This board doesn’t absorb very quickly, so continuing to brush over wet areas just moves the paint around, so I leave these areas to dry. I blocked in the white top of the dress next using gray gouache. I do the same with the socks. Now that the blue areas were dry I hit them again with more color, deepening the dark areas and creating contours. I do the same with black in the hair. Once those areas were completed, I started to wash over the long skirt of the dress with blue gouache. This is were it got frustrating (trying to cover a large area without it creating any edges from drying). To add to the frustration, my palette wasn’t perfectly clean, so a grain of gray gouache got into the brush and starting streaking the skirt as I brushed it. And despite this board not absorbing well, it managed to hold on to those marks all too well. Before letting it get the best of me, I mixed an amount of light blue acrylic paint, and then covered the entire skirt with it, using two coats to get as smooth and even a color as possible. Once dry, I mixed another light blue, this time lighter, going back and painting in the highlights of the skirt. Then I used a blue gouache to add in the shaded creases.
The last color of the day was black gouache for the shoes. Once dry, I added in white highlights, then finished the shoes with some gray colored pencils for the subtle reflections. To end the day, since I still had time, I coated the flesh areas with textured gesso, prepping them for tomorrow’s oil pastels…
work progress – painting the face and clothes
I started today painting the fence in the background using white acrylic. I wanted the fence to be forward of the colored background without pulling much attention. The camera’s flash enhanced the white to much brighter than it really looks (as will be seen in the final scan).
Next, I began work on the face, using gouache paint (except the tongue – I have a nice dull pink watercolor paint that suits that perfectly). Then I built up the hair with layers of browns and black. It still needs details, but it gets the idea across for now. After that I began painting the vest. The outer side (barely seen) I painted with a purplish gray gouache. The interior side I mixed a subdued pink (the pink I use, ‘opera’, is nearly florescent bright) gouache and covered it with a solid coat. I then used an old gouache technique I used to use, loading the brush with a color and mixing/blending it directly on the surface. For this area, I loaded black on the brush and started on the edge against the body, then blended it outward. I did the same with white, starting at the brightest highlight area and blending out. Both sides of the vest still need some white highlights, but that should be it for them.
Before ending my day, I blocked in the gloves with a dull ochre brown, and then added flesh gouache at all the edges where the skin will touch painted areas (and blocking in small areas, like her forearm, thigh and face, even though they’ll likely be covered later with the oil pastels)…
work progress – airbrushing the skin
The design of this piece is quite muted, almost monotone, so I decided to try airbrushing the skin this time. Before that though, I marked in a few details with gouache paint (eyebrows, eyes, nostril, a few skin creases, navel), then masked around all the skin areas. I probably took many more steps than needed (I think 7 total) in mixing the paint from light beige down to dark brown, but I’m not that comfortable with shading like this using an airbrush. I started light, and worked layer by layer, adding more to the shading and contouring. I didn’t dare try to get fine details (I don’t think my airbrush is built for that, anyway), so it’ll still need some more work to complete it. The face will still be done in oil pastels, at least in part.
For now, I left the skin as is and attempted to block in the hair. The paint and brush weren’t being cooperative, so I did the minimum coverage and moved on to the mouth. This marks the first time working details of the inside of the mouth, so it’s a new challenge for me. I finished most of it, but I want to give the paint time to really dry before doing the final details…
work progress – testing mediums
So today I tried out various mediums to find which will be the best one for this new project. One I didn’t mention last night is oil paint. I figured I’d try them out, just to see. I don’t like the colors I mixed for ‘peach’ flesh, plus it’s a little tricky to blend with the limited brushes I have in the studio. If the blue moves into the peach, there’s very little I can do to bring the color back. Overall, I’m not liking that one.
Next was airbrushing. Without mixing a dozen variants, it looks rather flat and dull. It’s easy to do though, and of course blends smoothly. If I were to use this, I’d need to under-paint it, or at least use pencils to build up the details.
And finally there was oil pastels. I created a grid to compare various mixes of colored pencils with oil pastels. It looks like the blue oil pastels work well on their own, not needing the pencils for enhancement. They seem opaque as well, so that’s hopeful. Mixing into the peach can still be tricky, but I’m much more adept at controlling them, so it shouldn’t get out of hand. I still have the issue of hair hanging over the skin, so either I’ll need to paint the hair with pastels, or I can try to match the skin color in paint and blend the pastels into that paint.
What I may do is airbrush a base, then gesso on top of that, using oil pastels for the final layer. This will also help if it would turn out any of the oil pastels are not as opaque as I had thought. If I mix the paint right, I might be able to paint the hair on with gouache/watercolors, and leave an edge around them to blend the oil pastels. This is what I do on most of my recent pieces, the only difference is the blue skin in this one.
Now that I have a plan in mind, I can get started on actually working on it. Tonight I’ll mask it out and try to get a base color into the background.
work progress – beginning the paint
I spent the day working on blocking in areas and adding some details. First, I used flat black gouache to cover the pump and her hat. While it dried, I painted her eyes and mouth with both gouache and watercolors (depending on the color). I loosely filled the hair with brown and black, adding wisps and strands on the outer edge and by the face, but not creating any detail within the main shape. Next, I blocked in the cement base of the pump with gray gouache, and a blue-gray wash for the tub. I used a burnt sienna wash for the boots, also just blocking them in. With the same paint I outlined the skin areas.
With the black paint dry, I used warm gray colored pencils to form the contours of the pump and hat. I rubbed in the pencils on the pump to blend and give it a slight sheen with my fingers. I used a blue-gray pencil on the top of the hat for a different tone.
To finish the day, I began texturing the cement and galvanized tub using various grays and browns, sometimes dry brushed, sometimes a wash. I gave the cement a milky wash of cream watercolor, which probably completes it. The tub will get more layers of texture tomorrow…
New artwork started
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…
work progress – paint and gesso completed
Today was very productive. With a simple background and no wardrobe to paint, this step of the process was quick and easy.
I started the morning masking the image, then airbrushing the background with a very, very light gray-lavender acrylic. In designing this image in photoshop, this background helped bring out the highlights in the model, as well as giving the overall image a nice tone.
Next, I freehand airbrushed five colors for the rainbow – light red, yellow, light aqua, light blue, and light violet. To finish the background, I airbrushed a mix of green and purple iridescent acrylics overall…
The remainder of the day was spent painting. I started with the face, painting the eyes and mouth (I once again added skin tone around the areas to help blending later, but I found myself coloring in the entire face to help see the tones better). Next, the hair, building up layers of watery gouache browns from ochre-red down to dark brown and black. I then painted the waist chain and charms with gray gouache, adding bits of black for shading, and white for highlights. While the black was out, I also painted the shoes. Then I used green watercolor for the rabbit’s foot, accents on the shoes, and the emerald in the clover charm. Again, I painted some skin tone around all these areas for later blending (including almost all of the foot areas, as they’re fairly small and I might not get much oil pastels in there).
With time remaining tonight, I was able to get to the textured gesso for the skin…
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.
