Before tackling this year's Holiday card I've warmed up with a few color studies. The lighting in this image a challenge. It's dark down at the bottom of the ocean with very little local color showing through (local color being the actual color of an object–grass is green, stop sign red). The colors are muted except where the bulb is casting its red light. I work out complicated scenes like this in Photoshop (see previous post). Recreating the digital sketch in acrylic can be a challenge.
Acrylic comes in different consistencies, from thick like butter to thin like ink. I use a product called flow-enhancer to thin the paint further. I can then use acrylic like watercolor (creating washes and glazes). The benefit being that acrylic, once dried, won't lift and leave a hole if an area is overworked later in the painting process. I tend to overwork things.
2 comments:
Love that er--"color sketch" (in most peoples' book that would be a finished illustration.) I wouldn't get too caught up in how things actually look. It's a cartoon fish after all! What matters most (at least to this illustrator) is whether it looks good/convincing--and it most certainly does. Keep up this level of quality and you'll have yourself a winning
X-mas card.
"I tend to overwork things."
So do I, though I imagine in a very different way than you intended to say here....
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