I'm Painting the Roses Red...

Having finished work on what I hope will be my fifth graphic novel (the Magic 8 Ball says "Cannot predict now"), I'm taking a moment between gigs to make some art. Self-indulgent, not-meant-for-publication, just-for-fun art. 

I've never displayed my own artwork around the house, but since we moved into our rebuilt home Karen has wanted a piece for our living room that meets two criteria: 1. Big. 2. Red. We looked at paintings and prints but couldn't find one we both liked enough. Finally, for her birthday a couple of months ago, I bought her a large blank sheet of 300-lb cold-press watercolor paper and promised to put a painting on it.

Some readers and friends like seeing my process. Here's how I'm making something that's not a comic.

I thought I'd do roses since they come in red and our living room window looks out onto our rose garden. I've spent some time doing studies to try out a variety of styles, compositions, colors, etc. The thing about studies is that they're not meant to be finished pieces. Rather, they're a way of testing different ideas to see which ones work. Risk is the point. Some earlier studies were failures but I think this one is heading in the right direction. 

For this piece, I outlined the roses with a loosely brushed ink line. I wanted it to look like something within my stylistic wheelhouse without being outright cartoony, and also be graphically bold rather than photorealistic (which I'm not sure I could pull off anyway). It's not obvious in the scan, but the roses are painted in three subtly different shades of red.

Pencil.

Ink.

First Layer of Watercolor.

More Layers of Watercolor.

This study is 11x15 inches. Once I get approval from my discerning client, Karen, I'll scale it up to about 22x30. With luck, the final piece will be 1. Big, 2. Red, and 3. Not an embarrassment. I'll let you know how it goes.