I’ve mentioned that I’m working on my color usage, yes? The entire point of this particular piece was to push my color usage, and experiment a bit with my application of watercolor. Also, I was trying to speed up my overall worktime (this sort of worked out). It’s a pretty silly, simple picture, but I like how it turned out overall. Sometimes one needs to draw something silly.
I don’t believe I pushed myself nearly enough, in the end, but the result was good at least. One lesson I learned is that I really, really need to make more of an attempt to prevent my hand oils from getting on the paper while I’m drawing. It’s hard to see the effects of this in the scan, but it’s there. And of course it drives me crazy. I’ve heard that laying down a layer of spray fixative over the pencilwork can help (putting a barrier of plastic between you and those hand oils!) so I may try that. Or I suppose I could put a slip of newsprint down under my hand like you’re supposed to. Heh…
I took photos of the piece as it progressed. If you’re interested, they’re after the cut.
Apologies regarding the poor quality of the shots. I didn’t feel like prying the tape up between stages, so I used my ipod camera… Which isn’t very good at the best of times, but in low light, even worse. Still, I think you can get the idea!
Pencil and a light background wash. The first photo I remembered to take.
A few more layers of watercolor have gone down. Everything more-or-less filled in.
A shot of my workspace. This is whats going on behind the scenes.
I could really use a drawing table. There’s my desk! The computer is on top of it, out of sight, and my painting is happening on the little pull-out shelf that’s supposed to hold a keyboard.
The first of the ink.
Mostly done inking. A lot of touch-up occurred between this and the final piece, illustrating the importance of "sleeping on it". I almost never feel the same way about a piece in the morning.
And then I was done.
Working on some pieces for clients at the moment (which I may or may not be able to share on here right away…) but I’ll hopefully be doing more of these step-by-step posts in the future!
A Distinguished Bird 
i’ve been trying to get better about documenting my progress too. still a little hit or miss. i love seeing your progression and this image is really great. The way you’ve drawn the waves is really cool and almost sculptural. depending on how i focus on the image, the water almost looks like it could be a rock structure, like maybe something you’d find in a cave.
It’s tough, my impulse is always to plow right through and I usually forget to document anything further than the basic stages (pencils, color, final). Need to do it with better quality, next time…
I like that interpretation! :) I also liked making those waves… got very caught up in the pattern and interaction between them.
thank you for your wip shots!!
You’re welcome! :) I’m trying to get better at this. Mayhaps I’ll actually include pertinent information regarding the technique of each step with the next one…