So I'd thought I'd take you, the viewing public, through the amazing adventurous process of making a painting. But I've found that even before I start this journey, I've already messed it up. The first step I went through was finding a frame, but I don't have a picture of it because this painting was a Christmas gift for my mom and I gave it to her. So I found a frame that I liked. It was kind of ornate, off-white wood with some sea-green paint strokes scattered about. Since I have the frame in front of me, I know what size the painting needs to be, and thus I sketch at this size. After doing all of these random sketches I decided on a subject, my old cat Oreo who just passed away recently. I don't have any pictures of him, so I sketched him from memory, coming up with a design that I liked, as seen above.
This sketch is what pretty much came directly next. It's weird how sometimes drawings come almost effortlessly. I sketched it in Col-erase fairly clean. The pencil line didn't come until I transfered it to the illustration board, via some graphite paper. Neat-o!
I memory isn't all that great so I wanted to get some photo reference just to be sure. This is the only photo my brother at home could find, so he emailed it to me. Not the greatest shot, but I can pretty much see the correct facial coloration. Plus, it's a cartoon version so who cares, right? I also quickly looked at some old 40s and 50s ads in a book just to get some texture ideas for the pants and shoes.
Next I quickly did a little color comp with some markers. I didn't like the orange, so I changed it to blue. Magic! I knew I wanted to incorporate the same green color that is hinted on the frame, so I sprinkled it throughout the pants, shirt, and lettering.
And finally, here's the guoache painting. And I don't have a photo of the piece inside the frame. Oh well. If I did you'd see that the words fit perfectly and don't look as lopsided as they do here. A fun fact: I use black India Ink instead of black guoache because black guoache flakes off after some time. And yes, my mom loved it! Hooray!
So I'd thought I'd take you, the viewing public, through the amazing adventurous process of making a painting. But I've found that even before I start this journey, I've already messed it up. The first step I went through was finding a frame, but I don't have a picture of it because this painting was a Christmas gift for my mom and I gave it to her. So I found a frame that I liked. It was kind of ornate, off-white wood with some sea-green paint strokes scattered about. Since I have the frame in front of me, I know what size the painting needs to be, and thus I sketch at this size. After doing all of these random sketches I decided on a subject, my old cat Oreo who just passed away recently. I don't have any pictures of him, so I sketched him from memory, coming up with a design that I liked, as seen above.
This sketch is what pretty much came directly next. It's weird how sometimes drawings come almost effortlessly. I sketched it in Col-erase fairly clean. The pencil line didn't come until I transfered it to the illustration board, via some graphite paper. Neat-o!
I memory isn't all that great so I wanted to get some photo reference just to be sure. This is the only photo my brother at home could find, so he emailed it to me. Not the greatest shot, but I can pretty much see the correct facial coloration. Plus, it's a cartoon version so who cares, right? I also quickly looked at some old 40s and 50s ads in a book just to get some texture ideas for the pants and shoes.
Next I quickly did a little color comp with some markers. I didn't like the orange, so I changed it to blue. Magic! I knew I wanted to incorporate the same green color that is hinted on the frame, so I sprinkled it throughout the pants, shirt, and lettering.
And finally, here's the guoache painting. And I don't have a photo of the piece inside the frame. Oh well. If I did you'd see that the words fit perfectly and don't look as lopsided as they do here. A fun fact: I use black India Ink instead of black guoache because black guoache flakes off after some time. And yes, my mom loved it! Hooray!
7 comments:
Cool painting...personally, i have a soft spot for warm bgs but the blue is sweet. Thanks for showing the process!
great painting! I love the little designs on the shoes.
Put me down as a fan of the shoe design as well. Great color choices too. Thanks for the tutorial, Sean!
Thanks guys! Hearing such nice comments makes me want to paint more.
thanks for the journey.
Nuestro gato Oreo nos sonrie desde el cielo gatuno. Fue el regalo mas emotivo que he recibido. Gracias, Sean, Mom
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REALLY excellent! love the wingtips! thanks for sharing the process!
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