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. |
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