So, nine months ago I went to the Ghibli Museum. It's not terribly far from my
house, and some friends came to visit Japan, so we all went over there. And
while we were there, in the gift shop I found a watercolor set with all the
colors that Miyazaki used to create the designs that the animators used for the
movies. I was really excited! And so I bought it, and it was like this really super
special gift to myself, and I brought it home, but I was so scared to use it.
It just felt so special that I didn't want to not like the first thing
that I painted. I really just didn't want to mess it up! So I've just
kept it this whole time and not used it, and I finally opened it. I didn't use the
sketchbook that came with it because I'm still feeling a little precious about
that, even though I found the same sketchbook at the art supply store, and I
know that I can replace it. But I went ahead and bought this other sketchbook
that's bigger and has has different paper. I'm gonna have to compare the two
later. But this sketchbook made me feel less like it would be a horrible thing
if I made a mistake or ruined a page. I could just tear it out. So yeah, I finally
got all the watercolors out. Not all of them fit into the tray, so there's a
range of... I think it was browns that I didn't put in. So this is my first time
using nice watercolor, I think. All the times that I've used watercolor in the
past, I'm pretty sure that they've been kids' grade, pretty cheap stuff, ranging
from like your Crayola brand watercolors, or like your Rose Art or your even
cheaper knockoffs that are just basically nothing but water, and then on
up to the Alex brand kids watercolors, where actually those were pretty good.
There was a really nice level of saturation in the work
but it was only eight colors, and they were really bright, and they didn't
really mix very well. But yeah, that's my experience with watercolor so far. And
maybe the Alex was a little bit more like gouache just because it was so opaque.
So this is an interesting little experiment. I didn't outline this cat with a micron
pen the way I have been doing, so he doesn't have quite the same feel. I
really think that that outline--it's really just a simple little touch, but it
gives it more of this "illustration" feel. To me anyhow. Okay, so I finished the
Wilford Brimley oatmeal cat, and then I went on to paint this white kitty. So the
Wilford Brimley cat has a teeny tiny nose because of the perspective, and
having it on the same page while I painted this white cat screwed me up
because I out of the corner of my eye was seeing and mimicking the proportions,
but the white cat's face is angled differently so his nose ended up about
50% as big as it should be. I think if not for that he might actually look a
little bit more realistic. So [like last video's cats] I went in again with some bright primary colors
on the base of this cat because painting white cats, it's difficult but fun. A
little bit stressful but fun. How many colors you can squeeze in
to represent white is kind of fascinating. It does present a big
problem though in terms of how to get the whiskers and eyebrows and things to
show up because that's just white on white. And then if they extend beyond the
cat's face, well then you've got white on the white background, so I still
haven't come up with a surefire solution for that. But that's alright.
A lot of times I'll kinda halfway do the rest of the cat's
face, and then try to stick the eyes in, because if I'm feeling a little bit
down on myself about how the painting is going, if I just flesh out the eyes and
start to make them look more dramatic, it's like an instant pick-me-up. Like, "oh
this isn't so bad!" As soon as I have that focal point I can kind of go easy
on myself. And even right here when I put those
little white dots in. that's what really makes it go, "okay this is all right, I can
keep going." But yeah... look how tiny his little nose is.
Poor kitty probably has all kinds of sinus issues, sick all the time and snotty.
But that's my two kitties for this week. I'll be back next time with more
watercolor cats. This time they'll be outlined in micron pen, but I experiment
a little bit with the amount of detail that I go into, so I hope you'll come
back and see. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment