Logged a few more hours on the Quest for The Ideal Paper over the weekend, trying out everything I had on hand in the studio: plain typing paper, Bristol, card stock, Arches (that is, the Good, Expensive Stuff) … At some point I found a cache of sample packs of watercolor paper, that I had completely forgotten about.
This page is all on Arches 140 lb. “En-Tout-Cas” (“All-Purpose”). Nice stuff.
I’m sorry to have missed MOCCA this year – it sounds like it’s packed with cool events and attending artists. Maybe next year …
Meta: According to Movable Type, this is the 100th entry on this blog. Hooray for persistence.
I draw a lot of slideshows, which are usually composited in Photoshop; each layer or layer set is eventually exported as a single slide image. I make one background at the bottom of the stack of layers, and make the art for each slide transparent so the background shows through. Here’s what happens when I get bored and make a bunch of the layers visible at the same time – maybe a dozen portrait heads in watercolor mashed together. Looks kind of like Wolverine on a caffeine binge, huh?
Here are some pencils from the most recent Smithson strip. My current system (and I’ve been through several over my run on the strip) involves working everything out in pencil on plain copy paper, and then inking over it on the bristol using a lightbox. I have a panel template that I use to quickly rough out the panel dimensions before starting in on the figures. I usually get at least two panels to a sheet, or more if they’re skinny panels (and if I don’t screw up one of the drawings.)
I must’ve had a good day with this page; only Gemma’s freaking-out pose gave me any trouble. You can also see where I re-cropped the panel, a prime advantage of doing things this way. If a panel comes out okay, it gets the magical Panel Number In A Circle and I move on to another one.
Meta: After promising myself I wouldn’t obsess over this blog’s design too much, I’ve begun fiddling around with different background textures. The current one is supposed to be a nicely textured watercolor wash, but tiled like this it comes out looking more like carpet samples. Ugh. So gird yourself for more fiddling with the blog’s design as time goes on.
More playing with watercolors on cheap paper.
