Parasite Illustration for Answers Magazine ………. (part 3) – The Chad Frye

So, today is the unveiling of my latest illustration for the article Parasites – Unwelcome Guests featured in the latest issue of Answers Magazine (Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2013). If you have followed the past two posts about the process this week, you are ready to see some final artwork!

After the final drawing (shared here yesterday) is approved, I print it out and then trace it onto my watercolor paper with regular pencil. I use the VERY nice and very expensive Arches watercolor paper onto which I apply my Winsor & Newton paint. The edges of the painting are taped with white artists tape (it usually doesn’t rip up the surface of the paper when you pull it up later) because when I do a full bleed painting, I like nice clean edges.

This is the first I thought to take a photo of the work in progress. Quite a bit is covered at this point. In the unpainted areas, you can see some purple underpainting where shadows will be. Never use black. There are no black shadows in real life – just darker colors.

This is just a close-up of the previous image. You can see how the paint job is pretty sloppy. Sometimes in this moment you can lose focus, but you have to keep that final image in your mind so that you can get it where you want it to be.

The painting part of the illustration is almost done here. Once the color is all laid in, I will go in and continue with colored pencil. The paper is textured which gives the paint and pencil a nice look together.

So, now for the grand unveiling. Drumroll please…..

And here is the final parasitical illustration after the colored pencil was applied. While it was printed at roughly 7.5″x10″, the original painting is 14.5″x18″.

Hope you enjoyed the little behind-the-scenes of creating this piece. Painting is a lot of fun. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned artist, grab a brush and paint something on paper! There is nothing like it. At the end of the day you can sit back and hold your creation in your hands – hopefully with some satisfaction. Then go do another one!