One thing I've been doing lately which I find helpful is making a very low res version of my color comp that breaks down the image into large blocks of color. It makes for a nice palette guide.
I focused a lot of my initial time doing wet on wet washes on the background. I knew I wanted the background to be fairly dark and chromatic. Having these large dark areas blocked in early helps give me some relative sense of value for the figure and the rest of the piece. Painting on an all white surface can be rather misleading. Context is important and can often make things look dark enough when they should probably be darker. As you can see I've started in on the figure though she has a long way to go.
4 comments:
amazing.
Some questions in an email:
"I'm a senior Illustration major at SCAD and I was wondering if you could answer a quick question for me.
In the new video that you posted yesterday, you're applying washes but the piece doesn't seem to be taped/glued to your board, how is it fixed so that the paper doesn't start to wrinkle up? I've been using gum tape and stretching my paper to gator board but I like how you're able to keep the deckled edges on yours. Also, the surface seems to constantly be wet when you're applying new washes but I never see you wetting the paper, how are you keeping it that saturated with water all of the time or am I just missing it in the sped up video?
Thanks for any help you can give, the new piece looks great. "
Some answers from me:
Q- "how is it fixed so that the paper doesn't start to wrinkle up?"
A- The paper does buckle and warp. If it gets to a point where it's affecting my painting too much I thoroughly wet the paper on the front and back and let it absorb the water until it relaxes and expands a bit. I then lay it flat in between two pieces of white mat board. I set a piece of plywood on top of the sandwich and add some weight on top to really flatten it. About 70lbs. It gets flattened for a day or so. When I pull out the painting it's usually missing most of the buckling. I use a bull clip and let it dry hanging for about 15 minutes in case there is any residual moisture in the paper. If there is moisture and the paper is laying flat on a surface the residual water will have no where to escape except the top, exposed side. This will cause it to dry faster on the exposed surface and curl upwards. This is why I hang it to dry. So it gets more even exposure and doesn't curl.
I adhere my paper to gator board using rolled up pieces of tape, sticky side out. Try using high tack tape, that has a little more sticking power. Also, a heavier stock of paper, I'm using 300lb hot press mostly, buckles a little less than lighter weight paper.
Q- "how are you keeping it that saturated with water all of the time or am I just missing it in the sped up video?"
A- You're missing it in the video. If you look closely you can see I'm using two brushes. The larger flat brush is loaded with water. This is when I'm wetting the specific area I'm about to paint on. Then you see me use a round brush to add on the actual paint.
Thanks for the questions. I hope this clears things up a little bit.
Eric
So lovely! Like the hoody
that looks beautiful, as usual:)
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