Faeries of the Year...or month....or.....

Yeah...something like that. ;)

I'm constructing 12 faeries, one as a representative for each month. The month's flowers and colors are woven into the making of each faery (doesn't mean you'll see the flowers tho...).

So here are the four I have so far....

Faery of June


Faery of September


Faery of November


Faery of July

Serafina - Pencil Clean Up

I dunno if this looks better or worse. Sometimes I worry that the "essence" in a piece is lost when cleaned up from the initial sketch. :

Any comments on the differences? Good? Bad?

Blue Eyes - Finished!

FIN.



The painting came out much more than I expected, but what glory to have it finished so that it may be shared!

To get the white whites I use liquid acrylic. It also adds another dimension to the piece. When held in the right light, that white really shines almost like silver. Plus, when water is added or put on thick, it shows a texture which I enjoy. The foliage really took over and the wings became quite colorful. Interested in hearing responses from viewers. This is quite a large piece and it was a challenge. A lot of great ideas, process, techniques, and mishaps came from it. Its a blessing to have such an experience! :)

Details









On to the next one.... ;)

Blue Eyes - Paint

Adding the Paint
After everything is inked and ready to go, I stare at the drawing and begin to plan out my colors. I rarely do color studies, if I do its for requested or freelance work. I generally knew that I wanted a bright sky, the tower to be in the distance, lilies with green leaves, gray celtic stone, a green jacket, and the man to look like my boyfriend Sterling (so blonde with blue eyes). Other than that....um, it was open.

So here's what came in the first couple of hours.



I didn't get the tower as distance as I would have liked, but with that and remembering that I this is my first real try at it...I learned to go lighter next time around. Found my clouds and painted my background. I always do underpainting, which with watercolor is the "foundation" of the painting in my opinion. This is when I determine where the light is coming from and my shadows on the figures. I tend to do this particular underpainting only with my figures...I do it for objects and environment, just first I place their "basic" color down, then add shadows. Makes it go quicker. ;)



I continue painting, adding light, adding shadow, adding middletone, adding light, adding shadow, adding middletone, etc. It goes on for hours. I also allow the painting to take me where it wants to go. The end result.... the Lord's beauty. :)

Serafina

I have decided to already start the next project. Tho she probably won't go to watercolor paper till "Blue Eyes" is finished, I have started to sketch her out.



Serafina one of the Heavenly Angels of the Sea. It is my hope to maybe do more than one, but when it comes to series I don't hold my breath. :P

Today I got the basics done. She is not taken from reference, just from my imagination. The fish tho, they will be taken from reference because I don't like the ones I drew. I am picturing this piece to be at least 20 inches long and maybe 12 inches wide...we'll see. I plan on adding a lot of shells, fish, and sea foliage. Its gonna be big!!! :D

"Blue Eyes" - Inking

Inking comes next. I use Micron and Pigment Liner pens in black and sepia (brown). In this piece I have decided to leave the black out and only use the sepia. But, I'm a big fan of art nouveou so I always add a thicker outline to my work.

That is usually done in black, but not today. :)

I have also sketched in some clouds (the castle is still there) and of course, some sun circles.

"Blue Eyes" - Details

After I get the general layout and shapes of the enviornment around the figure, I begin to go in with details and embelishments.

"Blue Eyes" - Onto watercolor paper

The next step is applying the image onto watercolor paper. I use 140lbs Arches Hot Press as a choice of preference. Its a beautiful and smooth surface, the only draw back...sometimes, is it has a cream color to it. Please forgive the low quality images. :)

How I transfer is I just flip the tissue paper over (yes, this means the image will now mirror itself), tape it down, and rub it down with a spoon, yes, a silver spoon.

After that I usually just go in and start developing the background on its own.


This piece is 20" x 16".

"Blue Eyes" - The Wings

Now for the wings....
The ends of each wing will be completed once the image is transfered.

"Blue Eyes" - A tutorial Project

I thought while I did this piece I would show you my process from beginning to end.

This piece has been in my mind for some time now. With the day being a hard one, I figured it was a sign that it was time to bring this to paper. During the weeks I usually stay here in Des Moines while Sterling lives in Grimes (about 20mins away). With gas prices so high, we don't see eachother much throughout the week. Missing him greatly also brings this piece to paper. Sorry babe, but you're gonna get posted. ;)

Finding the References

I usually search through my many folders of cut outs, magazines, and prints to find the posture or objects I wish to include. For this piece I printed out an image I found that sparked the idea a long time ago.



After I got the idea I went to Sterling and asked him to pose. Since I wanted this piece to be about him and how I saw his heart and strength, it only made sense to have him as my reference for the pose. The teddy bear is an obvious choice for baby holding. ;)



The Sketch

Then I sketch the first part, the figure, out on tissue paper. I find tissue paper very easy to work with and it makes transfering simple and clean.



To be continued...