SVS Virtual Studio MAY 2022
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@Griffin I used to do a lot of pet portraits for my dad's clients (he was a veterinarian) and it was a lot of fun and a good way to make some extra cash! This one looks great, so you should definitely explore that ideas.
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@AngelinaKizz holy cow! And so good!
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@Asyas_illos thanks!!!!
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@kylebeaudette THAT would be cool to see. And fun to do. Like a master copy but not.
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@AngelinaKizz thanks for doing that, and for the detailed reply!
It seems we work very similarly -- light layers, and a lot of them. Sometimes I burnish, sometimes I like the texture and keep it.
And sometimes after burnishing, it looks too perfect so I go back and add lines/texture (that's what I did with my storm illustrations--they needed some spontaneity).Your color tests got me curious so I did a few and thought I'd share them here. In my storm illustration, the grey wanted to show through and overpowered my flesh tones and some of the yellows. I think it might have been that some pigments are more transparent than others, across brands. That certainly is the case with watercolors and acrylics -- the same pigments are used, just different binders, so it stands to reason that the same could happen with colored pencils.
I tried your suggestion of laying down a light base of white CP first for the skin tones. It works, but not as vibrantly as I was hoping, with the pencils I have. There's also the issue of not having as many layers to work with on the smooth toned paper. So I experimented with laying down a white gouache layer first, and for me, I think that's the result I'm looking for. Although, the wax pencils seemed to work better over the gouache--the oil-based Polychromos struggled, as well as one of the Lightfasts, and it shows up on the scan.
Anyway, thought I'd share ... maybe our findings will be helpful to more than just us!
illustrator - author - smiley person
mbaileyart.com
instagram.com/mbaileyart/ -
@Melissa_Bailey I'll have to try gauche at some point! I can definitely see how you're getting the toned Grey through the pencil crayon. Maybe doing base of pan pastel would be helpful to try? I don't often use the toned Grey, I often prefer to do a background on my images, but I do like the Grey when I have to work in white hairs.
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@AngelinaKizz Woot! This is just beautiful. So cool to see you overcome your hand setback in such a defiant, frog choking the Pelican (I think everyone's seen that image right?) kind of way!
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@Jeremiahbrown thanks Jeremiah! Took 2 years, but honestly it was SVS that helped me. Illustrations are much freer than portraits, and doing them digitally comes with that helpful undo button. I can't even count how many times I'd retry the same line over and over again. Without svs, I don't know that I'd be where I am now with my hand.
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@AngelinaKizz interesting suggestion about the pan pastel. Have you used that before as a base layer? Do you have to spray it with a workable fixative before adding colored pencil layers?
I used gouache because I already own a tube of white and I didn't want to purchase anything new for an experiment.
Doing experimental illustrations on toned gray because I have a story idea where most of the book will be black and white, and I think the toned gray will be really impactful on the illustrations. But then the end of the book introduces color, and I would want to keep continuity in the artwork and use the same paper throughout. Which is why I'm testing how to use color on toned gray. Whew! Complicated explanation, but that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.
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The colouring is amazing love the shadows
