There Be Dragons 2!

So I took a little more time and started working on some color and texture tests. I've decided to stay away from oils, at least for now and go with either watercolors or acrylics. I'm extremely comfortable with watercolors, but I'm not sure I can get the end result I'm looking to get with them. Acrylics will give me the results, but I'm not as comfortable with them as I am with watercolors.

In the image below I took a pad of 140 lb Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper to do some further thumbnail tests but this time with color. I quickly re-sketched the 2 original thumbnails I preferred, this time with a black colored pencil. With watercolor paint I did simple washes over the sketches to see a simplified version of what I'm looking for color wise. Along with the color tests I decided to break out some acrylics and see how they did doing some scale texture tests. I wasn't happy with the initial tries (the ones in the middle) but did like how vibrant the colors were. I decided to give it another try (lower right) and found that this was more, texture wise, of what I'm aiming for.

The green "palette" in the photo is my first time using a Wet Palette. This is a homemade one and I was very happy on how it worked with the acrylic paint. I will defiantly be making a larger one now that I know it's something that works for my style of painting. I went cheap, only spending $3.00 on the materials to make them. I was able to make 3 small wet palettes from the materials I purchased. I'll be posting a full tutorial and a possible video on how to make one and what materials are needed.

Till next time!

George

There Be Dragons!

I just finished up a fairly large sketch card set this week and still have a few commissions to finish up, but needed a day to relax and put some ideas I've had down on paper. I'm starting to venture into other mediums in painting. I've oil painted years ago and I'm contemplating on trying them again. I've been dabbling in acrylics but they lack that smooth flow I'm used to with watercolors and seem to dry compared to what I remember about oils. My hesitation towards oils is all the chemicals needed to paint with them.

Well to get back to my idea sketching. I've gone out with my wife to a few thrift shops looking for frames. Frames can be a huge expense for artists and can dig into your selling price for finished pieces. So with that I figured why not try a cheaper alternative. We found a few decent ones over the past few days. Some in great shape too with a couple that might need a little TLC but nothing major. One of the frames is an odd, long shape that is just perfect for one of the painting I want to do. The thumbnails below are the starting point I'm going with. I'm sure there will be further changes and adjustments, but I have a good idea where this one will be going. My next step will most likely be going onto watercolor paper and doing some color comps to see a rough layout, still with the thumbnail feel and limited to no detail. Just enough to see if what i have is the direction I want to go. I'm still not sure what the final painting will be done with though. Decisions, decisions.... I'll be posting more on this over the next week so keep checking back!

George