Nocturne: Visitation

Nocturne: Visitation

Size: 15x19 inches

Medium: Mixed

 Prints: 8.5x11 ($16.95) and 11x17 ($26.75) -available here-

Visitation is a companion piece to a painting I did a month ago, Nocturne.

The wanderer's presence has not gone as unnoticed as he presumed. The faerie queen of the woods gazes upon his slumbering defenselessness and muses on what to do with this reckless one who dares to walk the hallowed paths and set eyes upon her.

* * *

Below are the sketches and photos of the piece as it progressed.

Started off initially thinking of a horizontal composition. Later on that changed. Thumbnail of the concept. Grassy circle in the forest, surrounded a stone cairn, and the faerie queen stands over his slumbering form with a lantern in her hand.

Brainstormed sketches for the Faerie queen. Went through many different scribbled sketches trying to find the right attitude.

 And sketch for the wanderer. He came easier, nailed what I had in mind on the first attempt.

At this point I ended up changing my mind on the horizontal composition and moved to a vertical one that matched the proportions of the original Nocturne painting. Cut and pasted the various sketches in photoshop, moved things around, scribbled in a rough approximation of the background.

 Then transferred and refined that onto the final surface.

First washes of color and ink.

 White watercolor ground layered on top, and more washes, and started on some detail on one of the trees.

More details, and some bold red and gold in the foreground

 The wanderer.

 First light glazes on her dress.

Drapery, hair, and face.

The little faeries around her and the lantern.

Picked out the negative space in the tree branches above.

Splatters of gold and red to help tie it back into the lower parts of the painting, as well as some blue/purple glazes.

 More work detailing the trunk textures.

 Gold leafing in the cores of the tree hollows.

And the final result.

Pittosporaceae

Pittosporaceae

Medium: Watercolor pencils & watercolors

Size: 9x12 inches

I was originally going to work on my companion piece to Nocturne today, and I did get a good start on finalizing the sketch, and then laying down the first wash. But the wash was taking a long time to dry, so I decided to scratch my botanical illustration itch. Been a while since the last piece. 

Snagged a few samples from my yard, since I really liked the woody seed pods of this plant.

 

After sketching, I very roughly colored with watercolor pencils, getting the basic colors blocked. Yellow veins, Greenish tones for most of the body of leaves, with some blue highlights.

Then I took a wet brush and painted all the areas, keeping the light/dark areas mostly separated to avoid too much blending.

After the water:

When that dried, I started going back in with watercolors to get more subtlety to the coloration. I like that the watercolor pencils add another layer of texture that feels organic and fitting to the subject matter, which is why I use it a lot for these types of works.

Tummy growled. 

Food break.

Yes, that is my fox plate staring at you with leftover Chinese dim-sum on it.

Break done, back to work. More layers of watercolors painted onto the lower dark glossy leaves.

I constantly refer to the sample when drawing. There's something about having a specimen in hand that you can turn around and examine from different angles, and really get in close to see the fine webwork texture of veins in the leaves. I've tried drawing botanical pieces from photos, but I always feel like I'm missing stuff that the camera didn't capture.

Went back and forth with watercolors and watercolor pencils, working in more depth of color.

Mixing a nice deep green....

Towards the end I add very select touches of highlights with a white gel pen.

And blend that in with a wet brush.

And for the very final step I use a fine lined neutral-toned gel pen. I like this moss green in particular, but I've also used browns and grays in other pieces. I like the sort of graphic quality it lends to do select outlining.

Beginning of year sale

Beginning of the year SALE! 30%-65% off original prices!
LOTS of pieces recently added to this list. There are very limited quantities of them left, so once they are sold out, they will no longer be available. Orders will be first come-first-served, and I will try to update the status of available prints frequently, but some items may sell out before I can update (in which case you will be contacted and refunded).

Dreamsign

Dreamsign

Size: 14x14 inches

Medium: Mixed

For detail closeups & prints ($16.95), -click here-

"Dreamsign" -- the elusive anomaly that a dreamer can learn to use to gain lucidity. It is a moment when clarity pierces the fog. Ironically it is often in the form of the nonsensical and out-of-place. Suddenly the fabrications of the mind become apparent as such. Exhilaration and control take the place of fear, anxiety, or confusion, and perhaps carry over in some small measure to the waking. Muhru is dreamsign. The sound of his wings beat like a pulse through all dreams, and he is the guardian of the thin line the separates the knowing from the unknowing.

* * *

Some of the in progress photos:

I have long wanted to revisit this concept from earlier 2013. The first piece was a very impromptu painting that emerged from the ink and paint splatters. I wanted to retain that dreamy emergence aspect of it while developing it more though.

Initial brainstorming and sketching.

Finalized sketch. I didn't do any pre-sketching for the background -- I was going to let that develop organically.

 Had an idea to make the key a little bit 3-dimensional. Originally thought to get out my paper clay and mold some of that, but it would involve opening a whole package for just a tiny bit of clay, and paper clay tends to dry out very quickly once the air-tight package is opened. So I went for just very thickly applied watercolor ground. Tried it out on a test scrap of paper first and was pleased with the results, so then I went ahead with it on the final painting.

Applied gold leaf to the raised key.

Adder Stone

Adder Stone

Medium: Mixed

Size: 12x16 inches

Prints: 8.5x11 inch ($16.95) available -here-

An adder stone that has a naturally occurring hole in it. Such stones were thought to grant magical powers to the bearer, among with was the ability to see through fairy illusions, but also sometimes invisibility, defense against the evil eye, and curative properties.

* * *

Sketches and the process:

 Initial sketches and brainstorming that I did over Christmas while away from my paints and desk. I did a lot of thumbnail drawings in my sketchbook.

This was the initial finalized thumbnail I arrived at. It was only when I was just about to start the meticulous finer sketch that I noticed the figure was almost exactly the same pose as the one in a painting I did in 2012 entitled Firefly Hunters.

So I had to rethink the composition a bit and came up with this instead:

 

First layer of paint to create a base layer of texture.

After that dried, I sprayed fixative so that I could retain the lovely ink textures. Then I started back in with a large flat brush with opaque white watercolor ground, and also started adding tints of color to various sections.

After the main areas were blocked in, I could take smaller brushes and pens and start to pull out the fine details in the background, starting with the background trees.

Started adding more contrast in the foreground elements.

And getting more detailed.