Category: art

Carl’s house (from the movie Up)

Remember the movie “Up”? Carl is compelled to leave (in) his house when it is squeezed too tight between skyscrapers.
Pencil sketch on Canson 10,2×15,2 cm One Art book:
Pencil sketch in an open artbook on a table. My fingers holding the page open are visible.

I used alcohol-ink brushmarkers and promarkers for colouring and a light grey Stabilo Point 88 for the thin lines:
Colours applied: black for the asphalt at the bottom, shades of warm grey for the two tall skyscrapers, green for the tiny lawn, grey-blue for the roof and window of the little house, reddish-brown for the chimney.

The watercolor effect in the sky was achieved by using a light blue promarker in one hand and the blender in the other. Then I did the same for the grey buildings in the distance. I used a black 0.1 mm Uni-Ball pin pen for the black lines, and a white Posca pen for the white ones:
Sky and background buildings added and coloured, shadows added, details added in white. I handwrote a title at the top, signed and dated at the bottom.

iPad watercolor: sailboat and island

After rough sketching, I painted the sky, using the watercolor tool of the Tayasui Sketches app that doesn’t “dry” until you tap the drop icon. While the paper was “wet” I added blue to my purple wash near the horizon:
Rough outline of lines and shapes. The sky is painted blue and purple in watercolour.
On a different layer, I painted the sea:
Sea painted in blue
On a third layer, I painted the rocky island, including the fort. I erased paint from the sailboat and the surf around it. And added a few strokes of different blue on the sea layer:
Brown of various intensity added to the islands, more strokes of blue over the sea.
Then I painted the fort red, darkened the rocks, erased paint where the seagulls were, and painted the sailboat:
I painted the fort red, darkened the rocks, erased paint where the seagulls were, added a red stripe to the sailboat and white foam around it, removed the layer that had the sketch I applied my signature and date at the bottom right.

Kelley Jones’ Batman

I wanted to paint a super hero as a present for my (first) godson’s 14 year-old birthday. He was going to get a real present, of course (grin). I went with a dark and pointy version of Batman by Kelley Jones, reminiscent of a genie out of a bottle.
I wanted to paint the black around him. I started with pencil sketching on a thick watercolor paper:
pencil sketch on a thick watercolor paper of a Batman with very sharp angles and standing on a sort of cloud
Then I used masking fluid. This time I did not add any water. It had been painstakingly long and tedious to peel it off the last time I tried this. And given the thin white lines I was aiming for, I didn’t use a brush, but … a toothpick. After a loooong time I was done and I framed the painting with masking tape:

I prepared a wash of lamp black and stroked with a synthetic and quite large flat brush. It was barely grey, so while the paper was still wet I added pure black, and another time , and another time. After the paper had dried, I peeled off the gum. It took me an hour. Tedious and painstaking again. I have no idea what I am doing wrong, and it’s possible the fluid I have is too old (I’ve had it for twenty years), or it’s my Hannemühle paper that isn’t right, but clearly this isn’t supposed to be so hard. Anyway, here goes the result:
Black paint applied all over. Masking fluid peeled off. Signature and date added in white at the bottom right. The Masking tape is still in place.
And here is the final result once fitted in its 20×30 cm frame:

Art: Daisies

In trying to master how to use masking fluid, I painted daisies. Here’s the pencil sketch:
Rough pencil sketch to mark where the daisies are.

I poured masking fluid in a small container, added a bit of water and applied it on paper using an old brush:
Pale green masking fluid that looks shiny under the light.

Once the fluid was dry, a used a wash of sap green and another of ultramarine, making sure to paint over the fluid but avoiding the center, so that areas between the petals that were not protected would be colored:
Watercolour wash in blue and green, still wet on paper.

Once dried, I peel the fluid off the petals, leaving the dots at the center untouched. The dry fluid had turned into some rubber-like gum. Unfortunately, a fair amount of paper was torn in the process:

For the shadows on the petals I used light blue, thin violet, some of my ultramarine wash. I used yellow at the center:

To the yellow I added some burnt sienna and a bit of red, I painted the stem with two shades of green, and once the paper was dry, peeled off the remaining dots of gum at the center:

Here is the result (9×14 cm), framed (15×20.5 cm), and ready to be given to Caroline as a gift: