By Kevin
Filed in Uncategorized, new artwork
Tagged with acrylic, bride, colored pencils, demon, detail, devil, fantasy, Gia, new art finished, oil pastels, paint, work progress
September 3rd, 2010 @ 10:01 pm
I did some tests for dripping paint, and satisfied with the results, I cautiously added red drips to the painting. Whenever one would touch the model, I held up a towel to absorb the excess so it wouldn’t’ drip into it. Since I relied on gravity to create the dip lines, some are not parallel due to the curving of the paper. If I could’ve secured the corner flat, I would’ve, but I wanted the paint to go across corner to corner. It adds an off-kilter feel to the piece, which I think is appropriate.
With that done, I mixed a purple gray acrylic and painted the skull down to the cheeks, leaving the eye sockets and below the cheeks as they were. This gives it more solidity, but still doesn’t pull it too forward in the focus. With the subtle hints of detail in the face, I think it’s right where I want it, so I won’t add anything more to that.
The final stage was fine details in the face and hair. I switched between colored pencils and oil pastels as needed, finishing with a brush dipped in turpenoid to blend it all smooth.
Once the oil had dried sufficiently, I scanned the painting, and have it up and ready in the website here.
Devil's Bride
Yesterday I blocked in the skin areas using colored pencils and oil pastels. Since the areas are rather small, and not a lot of detail needed, I started in on the detail work last night. Nearly completion, I took a step back to look at it overall. That’s when I knew the background wasn’t working for me. I knew it would need some more work toward the end, but looking at it now, I wasn’t sure what it really needed. So, I’ve taken some time off today in hopes of getting a fresh view, and perhaps some inspiration.
Tonight, I’ve taken one of the images from this blog to test ideas on in photoshop. One thing I’ve seen for sure is that the skull needs to be more opaque (and perhaps have some details to it). I’ve also tested the idea of dripping blood (or red candle wax, depending on how you want to see it). This is a tricky thing to do with the foreground completed. Hopefully that’ll be enough for the background, but if not, I may add more candles (and the pentagram candles will need redoing, as they are just too dim).
No photo update today, but hopefully it will be finished tomorrow.
Today I worked on all the painted areas, trying to get them done. I started with the red areas, using a black gouache wash, I added some shading and wrinkles to the various materials. Next, I dry-brushed black on the gloves and midriff, darkening them and adding a bit of mesh texture. Then I got to painting the bouquet. I mixed some yellow and black gouache with a touch of sepia too form the stem color, then brushed them in. I used the same color for the leaves, such as they are. Adding in some white to the mix, I painted the highlights (mostly in the stems), and then mixed black into the original mix to paint the shadows. With that done, I mixed black and red gouache to paint the flowers, adding hints of brighter red for highlights.
I worked on the hair some more, darkening it and adding some texture. I finally got the veil built up enough to show through the background (figures, both my acrylic and gouache reds are translucent). I added some red decor to the gloves and white highlights to the shoes, then painted the flesh areas with the textured gesso, preparing them for tomorrow’s oil pastels…
By Kevin
Filed in Uncategorized
Tagged with acrylic, airbrush, bride, demon, devil, Gia, gouache, masking, paint, work progress
August 30th, 2010 @ 10:12 pm
I started the day masking out the image, then airbrushing the background. I mixed a red-purple and covered the mid-section of the paper, then added some black to the mix and covered the lower section. Adding more black and a bit more red, I covered the remainder of the space, then with near-black I darkened areas until it was what I wanted. This paper seems quite absorbent, so the paint dries lighter and duller than expected. Still, I think it got dark enough (better to be a little lighter than darker, as there will be black areas in the foreground). Keeping the masking on still, I began painting the background elements, starting with a purple-gray for the floor’s pentagram. I also used a bit of the mix in beginning the skull, but found that the airbrushed paint mixed in enough to actually darken the areas that got wet (odd, considering how the paper seemed so absorbent – I would think the paint would hold better). I kept the skull and horns loose and subtle for the moment; I’ll work it more toward the end when I can see how it all fits together. Next, I painted the candles, starting with a dull gray-purple again, blending up through orange and into yellow. Up close, it seems quite bright, but is quickly dulled as I stand back, so I may have to add more paint later to bring them out. For the flames’ glow. I blended in a tan soft pastel. Before ending this half of the day, I wanted to complete all the airbrush work, so I moved the masking to expose the stockings and protect the background. I then covered the legs with a burnt sienna acrylic, followed by dark brown, and finally black, building up the shadows and forming the contours…
Later, I started the brush paintwork. I painted the face with gouache, then blocked in the hair with browns. I mixed a red acrylic paint to cover the dress’s train, and a brighter red for the rest of the red areas of the outfit. The acrylics will give me a good base to start from, allowing me to paint on top without worry of pulling up the red. Then, I painted the midriff and gloves with a mix of gray and burnt sienna gouache, in a wash. Once dry, I followed it up with black, washing it on over the brown, and more solid for the design and edges. There’s still more texturing on these areas to get them to feel like mesh/lace, but it’s a good base…
I’ve been going through the photos from my new shoot, and hit upon one concept that I was excited to begin. Before the shoot, Gia and I discussed a few ideas we would try for, but this one happened by chance as we shot. I saw a glimpse of the idea during one of the sets, so I mentioned it to her, and we both started working out how to make it happen. Wardrobe was the biggest trick, since neither of us had planned the idea, and we didn’t have an outfit for it. Luckily I only use the photos for reference, as the hodgepodge outfit would look odd on its own. We got a variety of shots, but this one stuck out the most, so it makes the cut for at least this first painting (there may be more from this set of photos in the future).
The concept, if not the title, is “Devil’s Bride”, so she’ll be dressed in black and red, with a dark purple background. I finished designing it, so next is drawing it on the paper. For those that like deckled edges, this paper has them on all four sides…
model -Gia
By Kevin
Filed in Uncategorized, new artwork
Tagged with colored pencils, cowgirl, gouache, Kneely, lasso, new art finished, oil pastels, paint, pinup, work progress
August 22nd, 2010 @ 8:29 pm
I finished up all the details today. I used a mix between colored pencils, brushed oil pastels using turpenoid, and blending with my finger and tortillions. I added a bit of an outline to the skin and gloves to complete the ‘classic pin-up’ style, then refined the hair with gouache paint.
Nothing more I can see to do, so it’s scanned and available now right here.
Yeehaw!
Today I spent time covering all the skin areas. I re-applied the masking around the areas, then section by section I would use colored pencils to for the base colors and contours, followed by oil pastels to blend. Most of the areas don’t have too much fine detail, so I took time to get the contours down to nearly the final look.
With the time I had left tonight, I started detailing the face and torso using colored pencils. It should be no problem finishing this tomorrow…
By Kevin
Filed in Uncategorized
Tagged with acrylic, colored pencils, cowgirl, drawing, gesso, gouache, Kneely, lasso, paint, pinup, rope, work progress
August 20th, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
I started the day mixing black acrylic with a bit of white to give it an ‘off-black’ shade. I used this to block in the hat and boots. This form of acrylic paint works a little like gouache in that it can be re-wet and worked with for a short time before becoming permanent. I added some white acrylic to my brush and blended it into the black for toning and highlights.
While I waited for that to fully dry, I used black gouache in a wash on the skirt, building up layers to darken and contour it. I painted a blue-gray gouache on the back half of the belt, then blended black into it. I stippled the black into the front of the belt, creating its texture. Then I painted the fringe with gray gouache, adding little lines of black for shadows.
Back to the boots and hat, I re-wet the pink I used for the vest yesterday and painted the stitched design on them. I didn’t like the way the board’s texture was showing through in the painted gloves, so I mixed a dull tan acrylic and painted them again, this time solid. I then added some white to the highlights and brown to the shadows, blending them in before the acrylic could set fully. Next, I painted highlights on all the painted areas with white gouache.
To complete the painting portion of this piece, I covered all the skin areas with textured gesso so they’ll be ready for oil pastels tomorrow.
I ended the day using colored pencils to finish the rope. It ended up being a mix of ochre, gray, and dull yellow, with a little bit of dark brown for the darker shadowed areas (by the hands)…
By Kevin
Filed in Uncategorized
Tagged with cowgirl, flesh, gouache, Kneely, lasso, paint, pinup, skin, watercolor, work progress
August 19th, 2010 @ 9:46 pm
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)…
By Kevin
Filed in Uncategorized
Tagged with acrylic, airbrush, colored pencils, cowgirl, Kneely, lasso, masking, pinup, rope, work progress
August 18th, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
A bit of a setback having the website hacked a few days ago, but everything should be about normal again now (and safer).
I had a request for another cowgirl piece, so I went through the photo set I took of Kneely a few months ago and found something that might be fun. I worked on the outfit and lasso to complete the design, then drew it on illustration board…
- model Kneely
Next, I masked out the image, then mixed a light sky blue acrylic. I airbrushed it loosely around the top half of the board. I followed that up with a light tan acrylic, airbrushing the same way around the lower half. I used an ochre colored pencil to rough in the lasso rope…
