Here we are at the end of the week, which means we have come to the final post in this step-by-step explanation of my Indiana Jones and Rocketeer dynamic duo. Once again, if you are just joining this party, perhaps you should start back at Step 1 to truly understand the anatomy of this painting. CLICK HERE to do so.
STEP 5
While Indy and the Rocketeer were outlined with a black Prismacolor pencil, the nuances of their inner details utilized many colors. Lilac, parma violet, deco yellow, violet, cream, sand, some greens, various reds, pinks, and maybe more not coming to mind right now. The point is, colors are important to the success of the piece!
Take for instance this close look at the Rocketeer. There are so many colors working together to create his details. See the lighter highlights on his flight jacket? That’s deco pink! The same deco pink creating highlights on his hands and on his pants. It was a nice gentle light color that also happened to tie him in with the colors around him on the background. You need your figures to look like they belong in their setting, and to do that is to use the same colors as would happen in real life with the idea of reflected light. (I’m not going into a deep explanation of reflected light, but you can look it up.)
The ONLY white used directly on this painting was for the bright highlights on the Rocketeer’s helmet and jacket buttons, and a little on Indy’s teeth. No white is in the Rocketeer’s eye pieces – that’s just a light green in there.The man with the hat ready for his close-up.
And with that, the piece is all done! Here is a scan (not a photo this time) of the final art ready to be framed and hung in a gallery.
Whew! All done!
THE SHOW
On April 22, the Rocketeer art show opened at Creature Features in Burbank, CA. There were MANY great pieces created in all mediums such as oil paint, sculpture, latex, metal work, vinyl, watercolor, marker, acrylic, ink, and the ever popular digital media.
Film score composer Christopher Young dropped by to check out the show!My old friend from our days in New Jersey, Walt Sturrock, who is also an amazing painter. We even worked together at Disney for six years.A wide shot of one of the gallery rooms at Creature Features with everyone enjoying the show.
FOR SALE
ORIGINAL 18X24″ WATERCOLOR & COLORED PENCIL ILLUSTRATION –$1,750.00
Yesterday I finished explaining the painting stage of this Rocketeer/Indiana Jones mash-up illustration. Today begins the explanation of incorporating colored pencil into the piece. This is when the details begin to come forth. If you are just joining our discussion, perhaps you should start with the first post for context. CLICK HERE to start at the beginning!
STEP 4
With the painting portion all done, and the focus having been on the central characters for a while, let’s look at our supporting cast – the Nazis. Now, I’m not in favor of glamorizing Nazis, but I sure don’t have a problem with showing them about to get their hindquarters kicked by a couple of legendary heroes. All that red paint has hidden our villains of the piece, so it is time to bring them back so our heroes can see who they are about to beat down.
I use Prismacolor colored pencils in my work. They sure are expensive. I remember when they were about 50¢ per pencil, while these days it can be $1.50-2.00 each! I buy mine in bulk which helps get the price down, and am happy to utilize rebates that Prismacolor often offers, but they are still very pricey even with discounts.
To get the Nazis going, I chose a violet pencil. Ultimately this color didn’t stand out enough on the red background, so I went over the lines later with a darker violet blue pencil. Using a purple color on the soldiers helps to tie the piece together with the central characters who, as you may recall from yesterday’s tutorial, were shaded with purple paint.
The original pencil lines under the red paint were just visible enough to be easily followed with the dark purple colored pencils used to outline the soldiers.
Once the soldiers were outlined, two pencils were used for the highlights. White? Nope, white wasn’t one of them, though your eye may think there is white in there. Working from back to front, I started with a nectar colored pencil, then lightly applied deco rose for some brighter spots. Both are shades of pink, and worked well against that red BG.
You can really appreciate the texture of the paper when in the colored pencil phase. It almost has a quality of oil pastels, but is less messy.
In keeping the soldiers primarily the red of the background, using these two highlight pencils makes it feel like you are sculpting the characters out of the scene. You are bringing them forth from the flatness of the paper by giving them a bit of dimensionality with well placed tones.
Here’s the piece with all the soldiers completed with their highlights.
And just like that you have a Nazi army poised to cause trouble. Our heroes aren’t quite ready to respond in kind to their imposing enemy. They are still locked in the realm of nebulous paint. They require some definition, too.
Originally I was going to outline Indy and the Rocketeer with a really dark purple pencil called black grape, but when I started using that, their outlines looked a little foggy. There wasn’t enough contrast between the outlines with the color of the BG. I hesitate to use black pencil for outlining in a painting, but it was the only color darker that would work with the color choices in the piece. The lines needed to really pop not only because of that intense red, but because I was thinking about Dave Stevens’ masterful inking in his comics and wished to channel a little of that sensibility.
The heroes now have their outlines, and are ready for their interior pencil work.
Come back tomorrow for the final step that finishes up our heroes, and to see a couple shots of opening night at the Rocketeer art show in the gallery at Creature Features!
So, here we are for the continued explanation of the step-by-step creation of my recent Rocketeer painting. If you need to start back at Step 1, CLICK HERE! Let’s get right to it, shall we?
Step 3
Now that the background has been completed, it is time to remove the liquid frisket from the central characters. To do this, you use a rubber cement remover/eraser. It is a rubbery bumpy square usually found in art supply stores. You rub this gently at first on the edge of the liquid frisket, and if needed, more aggressively as you can without damaging the painted areas. The idea is to peel up the edge of the frisket. Sometimes when you peel up the edge, you can just grab it with your fingers and pull it off. Other times, you need to keep applying the eraser.
Here it is with all the liquid frisket removed.
Below is a close-up of the figures. You can see that there are specks of red paint all over them. I think this was caused by two things: 1. I shook up the liquid frisket before applying, and it had lots of bubbles in it. When the bubbles popped, it may have left tiny holes where the paint got in. 2. When I was using the rubber cement eraser, it picked up some of the red paint from off the frisket, and then smudged it on the paper where the frisket had been removed.
Paint specks made it onto my art which is a drag. This did not happen on a previous painting when I used this technique.
Since the paint is water based, the specks on the characters can be minimized before painting any further. Just wet a brush, dab it onto the affected areas, let it soak in for a moment, then dab it up with a clean paper towel. Repeat. It won’t remove all signs of a color as bright as this red, but it will minimize it enough to where it won’t be noticeable when you continue the rest of your painting.
Back when I was painting the background, there was time to mix up other colors while waiting for each layer of paint to dry. I buy these little Solo condiment cups and lids for paint. You can write on them with a Sharpie, and the paint stays wet inside for days.
Paint cups being guarded by the Rocketeer himself. By the way, that Mickey Mouse hand is my salt shaker. Every time the hand spills some salt, Mickey has seven years of bad luck.
The next step is creating an underpainting layer of shadows on the characters. I often use purple. When working with watercolor, the final color on top will allow this shadow layer to peek through. Paint these shadows darker in spots where a dark color will go on top of them.
Sometimes a sepia can work, but purple is often my choice, especially with that red BG screaming at you.
Once your underpainting has dried. You can lay on your top colors. Because that underpainting was done with watercolor, putting wet paint on top of it can cause the underpainting to run if you are not careful. The best way to prevent that is to paint your top colors on very quickly. The dry paint underneath won’t have a chance to get saturated with the liquid which is why it would start to slide and mix in with your top paint.
Here’s a nice close-up of the central figures all painted. You can see how that underpainting nicely provides colorful shadows on the figures.
I had a friend that would do a shadow underpainting with DW ink, which is acrylic based. Once that dries, it can’t move around with water put on it. They may make a purple DW ink, but so far I just used watercolor paint for my underpainting.
This is how the whole piece looks now that the painted portion of the piece has been completed. There can be other touch ups and additions added later as needed.
So, that is the end of the painted portion of the illustration! Next, the colored pencils come out to do their damage!
Today you will read about the beginning of the painting process of my latest illustration – an 18×24 inch piece featuring Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer created for a group art show in Los Angeles. If you are just joining us with this post, perhaps you would like to start at the beginning with Step 1 by CLICKING HERE!
Step 2
Yesterday you read about the conceptualizing and planning stage for this illustration that pairs up Indiana Jones with the Rocketeer in their united quest to rid the world of Nazis. After working out the final drawing on the computer in Photoshop, that same drawing needs to be transferred to watercolor paper.
I printed out a muted version of the drawing onto Strathmore Layout Bond paper that was in the studio. It is sturdy enough for an inkjet printer, and thin enough that the pressure of a pencil will push its way through the paper and the graphite paper underneath to put the drawing on the painting surface.
Yes, graphite paper. I explained and photographed this paper in a previous step-by-step tutorial last year. You can CLICK HERE to quickly read about that process if it is unfamiliar to you. Go ahead. We’ll wait for you.
So, here is the final drawing on my nice Arches watercolor block paper. The graphite paper can come out light in some areas, but since graphite is just pencil lead, you can easily erase and draw with a pencil to darken it as needed, and change to your tastes. The pencil lines should be dark enough to be seen through the watercolor paint that will soon cover the piece. If you can’t see your lines anymore, then you’ve just crippled your ability to accurately finish the painting!
The paper with the final drawing transferred and ready for paint!
Okay, so you probably noticed a yellowy substance covering our heroes. I failed to snap a picture of just the pencil art without that goo on there. If you really analyzed that color comp from yesterday, you might have noticed some aggressive painting for the background – the color burst around the heroes, paint spatter emanating from the center, and also all that red everywhere.
Normally I would use airbrush frisket to mask off an area, but this particular paper is very textured, and the frisket will not adequately protect the central figures from any of the background painting process. So I used a liquid frisket. It is a liquid latex you can buy in art stores that resembles rubber cement in a way. You spread it on the areas where you don’t want paint, then let it dry. You can do your painting as messy as you wish, then later remove the now solid “liquid” frisket with a rubber cement remover. We’ll get to that later.
This is the bottle of liquid frisket I’m using at the moment. It came with that applicator device with a skinny tip and a chunky tip. You have to use this gently because I’ve found that it can scratch the paper surface if you press too hard.
So, painting. With the needed red color fully mixed, and lots of it, I wet the paper generously with clear water and let it soak in. This will help watercolor paint to go down smoothly over a large surface. The first red layer is spread with a big soft brush, and while it was drying, I sprinkled salt in certain spots of the background. As the paint dries, the salt absorbs the paint where it landed creating interesting speckles on the surface. With two action heroes fighting enemy soldiers, my goal is to have a bit of a gritty surface.
With one layer of paint on the background, the red is still a bit light, but all those speckles created by salt helps give the background a little energy.
Applying the red paint went through several layers, as also the application of more salt. After a layer would dry, the paint could look bunched up in spots, so then I would just wet my big brush and lay down some water to help smooth the whole thing out a bit. All in all, I think there were about 4 or 5 layers of red and water applied to the BG just to get it satisfactory.
In the image below, notice that there are some darker red splotches on the BG. Those were created by dipping a brush in the same red paint and dripped onto the canvas while the paint was all still wet.
Here is one of the extra layers of red applied that is still wet. Salt was thrown on there again, but the results can’t be seen until the paint dries. Notice how the paint beads up on the liquid frisket.
The last step for today is painting that brighter burst in the middle. For that, I used my trusty old airbrush. I mixed two more shades of red with gouache this time (an opaque water based paint), each lighter than the last, and built it up dark to light. This can only be done once you feel the whole BG is working because it would be much harder to undo this if you had to go back to change the main BG later. This isn’t a tutorial on how to airbrush, but just letting you know the tool I used to create that burst behind the heroes.
The frisket continues to protect the characters from the red ravages of the airbrush burst.
By the way, in between layers of spraying that burst, I used an old toothbrush to spritz some small spatter with a lighter red color in the center. I also used a larger brush and did some controlled paint flinging to get larger drops to spread out from the center of the piece. A fun but messy stage that if you haven’t done it many times before, you should practice on a side paper before you risk ruining your picture.
So, that is how the background was painted. Come back tomorrow as we start on the figures!
When you are on the hunt for your pal who appears to be missing, it’s always good to have your trusty dog on the case. Although, in this situation, having the “dog on the case” be quite literal may not be a good thing.
See, this is why I don’t care much for big dogs.
This actually is a new take on a previous idea I sketched a few years ago. I just find situations like this funny when a big dog is just too big for its own good. CLICK HERE to see my older sketch dealing with a magnitudal problem.
I rarely promote other people’s Kickstarter projects here on my blog, but boy howdy, I’m excited about this one!
My friend Greg Preston is a photographer. Over many years he has been taking photographs of cartoonists, illustrators, and animators in their home studios. His first collection of them was published in a beautiful coffee table book by Dark Horse Comics a few years ago called The Artist Within, and was a huge hit at San Diego Comic Con where it had its debut.
Well, Greg is ready with his second batch of photos and has decided to self-publish them in a second volume called The Artist Within 2! I am excited because I love Greg’s work, and can’t wait to see more friends and colleagues portrayed in this way.
The second big reason I am excited is because I will be in this book, too! Yep, a few years back, Greg came to my place and took my photo for his collection – the SAME DAY that he took a photo of famous illustrator Drew Struzan!
Other such great folks in the book are Ollie Johnston (one of Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men), character designer Stephen Silver, fantasy illustrator Donato Giancola, The Family Circus‘ Jeff Keane, his brother and former Disney animator Glen Keane, John Lasseter, Disney animation director John Musker, comic book guys Steve Rude, Carmine Infantino, animation director Chris Sanders, and the list goes on. He even has the world record holder for longest working cartoonist, the 96 year old Al Jaffee who continues to do the fold-ins for MAD Magazine. I feel very honored to be in such company.
Here’s the Kickstarter video describing the book:
So, the book itself is a real prize, but there are also extra special things you can pick up through this Kickstarter that the artists have been donating – things such as this one-of-a-kind original art I created with ink, watercolor, and colored pencil!
A fresh & tasty original piece that one lucky Kickstarter customer will be able to behold without the watermark!
Or perhaps you’d like the opportunity to acquire one of three prints of my Frankenlisa painting, prints that have never before been offered for sale. I chronicled the step-by-step making of this painting here on the ol’ blog back in 2009 (CLICK HERE for a refresher), and it just so happens to be the painting sitting on my drafting table in my photographic portrait that will be in The Artist Within 2!
This is one of three prints of my Frankenlisa that will be signed and remarqued for 3 Kickstarter customers – sans watermark, of course!
So, please consider pre-ordering a book through Kickstarter so this amazing tome can be published. I plan to order a few myself! You only have until April 27, 2017, to do so! Here is the handy-dandy link: The Artist Within 2!
You know how it is when you play fetch with your dog…
He/she jumps up and down giddy with the anticipation that you are about to lob that tennis ball somewhere. As you release the fuzzy orb into space, the dog bounds after it with the energy of NASA rockets, snatches the ball before it comes to rest, and races back to you re-entering the atmosphere at breakneck speed. As you reach down to retrieve the orb for another launch, the dog immediately turns into a ferocious beast with growling and fangs ready to rip you to shreds as if it had been infected by some strange being from another world it may have encountered while on its journey.
If only the dog returned with some kind of superpower like the Fantastic 4.
Over the past year, Bongo Comics’ Bill Morrison and I have been working on putting together a fundraiser for the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. This week we launched the auction on Ebay.
We have 85 items featuring the work of over 70 of the nation’s top cartoonists, illustrators, and animators, most of whom donated their own work to our efforts for which we thank them!
All the money raised goes to the NCS Foundation, a fully licensed 501(c)(3) charity, to help them continue their work in assisting cartoonists in need, providing scholarships to students, and further promoting the cartoon arts which has been the hallmark of the National Cartoonists Society since its inception in 1946.
To see the art and to place bids, CLICK HERE to go directly to the NCS Foundation seller page on Ebay!
