Here's a play-by-play of the current cover I'm working on...
This is the final, slightly revised from my previous post, drawing, which I scanned, cleaned up a bit and then printed out on cold press watercolor paper.
Initial washes (it is surprisingly difficult to find vibrant, transparent oranges. They seem flatten out the minute they dry)....
A layer of color all around....
More resolution.. although I'm still uncertain about *how* to resolve the dandelion seed heads... Who had the bright idea of including white-puffy-dandelion things that need to be painted in watercolor???!!! Oh yeah, that would be me...
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10 comments:
I like your colors, they flow so nicely together. Perhaps the red with yellow wouldn't read as flat as the orange?
Lovely. I needed a refresher in building up since my own approach is a little different.
I agree with Vicki. Maybe try a some different combinations to get orange and see which you like best. In acrylic I have a fondness for cad yellow and alizarin crimson but watercolour is trickier (for me anyway!).
Lovely start on the seed heads-- keep them dreamy and then lay in the stems. My niece calls them Wish Flowers!!
I love seeing your painting process! It is looking beautiful thus far. Do you work at size or larger?
Hm, puffy dandelions... if I were painting them I'd probably put in pale hints of what is behind them here and there (especially that dark seeded center), then maybe texture them lightly with gouache. Can't wait to see more of the WIPs!
This is just beautiful and I love seeing you work in progress!
Thank you for your lovely comments.
Vickie and Andrea - I have ended up doing just that. A fairly red wash followed by a very yellow glaze. Better color. More vibrant.
Carmen - For covers, I work much larger. The picture area here is about 10x14 inches. The printed cover is just over 5x7. For interiors, I still work larger (I like how things tighten up when reduced) but more like 110% rather than 200+%.
We shall see how the seed heads fare this evening...
It's stunning! Thanks for sharing the step by step process, I love to see how other peole work :)
Looking good, nice to have resolved that orange-ness already. Puffy, hmm, LOL you've probably already resolved that one too.
Oh, Tara. What a wonderful start. So you let your pencil lines show through, adding to your underpainting. I love it. Good luck with the dandelions. Have you ever seen how Justin Gerard works? He does his whole painting in watercolor and then finishes in PhotoShop and it still preserves the watercolor look. Wonder if that would help with the seed heads. Keep sharing your process. It's magical.
Kim - I keep wishing I knew PhotoShop well enough to 'save me' when I have these kinds of issues. However on the other hand, I also really really like having the original piece of art looking like what was produced. Am aiming for secondary market reselling, etc... at some point...? Being able to physically paint the things feels like a really good idea to me.
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