Monday, October 6, 2008
Illustration
I was asked to create a watercolor painting so here it is, basically it all starts with my materials so I grab a sheet of Watercolor paper (Arches) a good brand for water coloring. For this project I’m using a more low grade sheet of paper (140 pound) that means the weight of the paper, the more weight the better quality I’m going to get for my paint because remember this is WATER coloring so more paper weight holds more water. For this one I’m using 140 pound but for more professional work Ill go with 300 pound or even 400 pound witch is very good you can throw into a tub of water and take it out and it still won’t wrinkle or break.
Starting with the drawing I keep the lines from the pencil light if there to dark it will show through the watercolors and that will make it look a little messy so I erase any pencil lines that I think may show through later on. The illustration is of Night crawler a comic book character that I read from time to time, I didn’t bother using any kind of reference material like pictures or models because I want this to be a quick example plus I already know what this character looks like in my head. All in all it takes me about 10 minutes to get this done.
Starting with the drawing I keep the lines from the pencil light if there to dark it will show through the watercolors and that will make it look a little messy so I erase any pencil lines that I think may show through later on. The illustration is of Night crawler a comic book character that I read from time to time, I didn’t bother using any kind of reference material like pictures or models because I want this to be a quick example plus I already know what this character looks like in my head. All in all it takes me about 10 minutes to get this done.
Painting with Watercolors
Before I start with the painting I need to tape this watercolor paper down to a board, and there are a couple of reason for me doing this. First of all by holding the paper down it wont buckle from the water meaning sometimes the paper it will fold after laying to much water, by taping the sheet of watercolor down it will not to fold. Another reason I tape my paintings is because it leaves a blank 2 inch border that crops the painting so that it can be held by hand, people in general including myself will be handling my work and we do have skin oils that leave fingerprint marks on painted work or photographs so these borders act like a security blanket against that It also gives the work a beautiful photographic compositional look.
When I’m painting with watercolors I start from light to dark, because its easier to fix mistakes, also that means I start with the lightest value and work towards the darkest value of that tone. I really cant tell what the painting is going to look like even if its half done because everything is light toned and hard to see until after when the contrast starts to come out from the dark values. It takes time and I have to depend on the water to do most of the work for me, with small bush stokes it comes down to trusting myself that I know what I’m doing because the moment I lose sight of that something will go wrong and watercolors can be very unforgiving.
When I’m painting with watercolors I start from light to dark, because its easier to fix mistakes, also that means I start with the lightest value and work towards the darkest value of that tone. I really cant tell what the painting is going to look like even if its half done because everything is light toned and hard to see until after when the contrast starts to come out from the dark values. It takes time and I have to depend on the water to do most of the work for me, with small bush stokes it comes down to trusting myself that I know what I’m doing because the moment I lose sight of that something will go wrong and watercolors can be very unforgiving.
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