A toy story

Peek watercolor process

Here is my watercolor step by step process for making my latest artwork peek!
This was inspired by studio ghibli's The Borrower Arrietty.

 I really love this animated film... anyway back to business, I started this one out with a concept in my head and directly sketched it on the watercolor paper (I know this is not the advisable way to do it, I just got so excited that I decided to directly do it on the canvas). Then I added a warm yellow wash and started painting the leaves. I got carried away and forgot to take a photo of my initial process, sorry guys. My color palette was mostly warm greens, yellow and red because I want it to have a magical glowing feel.

 Next step I painted the cute little girl peeking out of the giant mushroom. The trick with watercolor is to do the coloring with very light tones first (to do this just add copious amounts of water) and add the dark tones little by little, since the magic of watercolor lies in its transparency. :)

After that I added the details, shadows and texture on the girl, leaves, flower & the mushroom. And then I was done. Hooray!

That's all there is to it. If you find this tutorial helpful please comment or share.

First Post

My first blog article will be a tutorial. Well not really a tutorial but a description of my painting process. Different artists have varying styles and techniques so anyway this is the way I do mine.

The inspiration for my drawings are dolls – very cute, big eyed dolls… and dogs… and Tim Burton…and Michael Kutsche and Kei Acedera blah blah blah…(Zoned out).

PROCESS

STEP1 :

• I start with a rough sketch on a dark background; nothing really fancy.I do this to get the proportions right.
• TIP: Don’t worry if the lines are not perfect, they’re just a guide and will get covered later after all.

sketch

STEP2 :

• Let’s start with the main image first – the girl. I start to fill in the shape with flat colors and  add shadow to the girl. I do this just to get the feel of the color palette I’m using.
• I use Photoshop’s default Solid Round Brush and then use a bristle brush to soften/blend the colors.
• I have separate layers for the hair, body, and face.

STEP3 :

• When I was happy with the colors, I started adding the shadow on the background on “multiply”.
• I then established the light source. Here, I created the light as if it were coming from  a door and sketched the road/floor on a different layer.

STEP4 :

•  Oh. The dog has been standing there still for quite some time. Ok Doggie, let’s color you now!
• I chose the girl’s headband color for the dog so there won’t be too much colors on the painting. To me this adds uniformity.
• It still looks pretty rough but I don’t mind the details at this point.  I’m more concerned with the overall look.

STEP5:

•  Using “multiply”,  I darkened the girl’s face.
• For the dog’s fur I used a small fine brush to draw the detail, and hair brush (c/o goodbrush!)
• I use a solid brush for the shadow cast by the girl (note: I used  dark brown shade for the shadow. TIP: Shadows are not really black.)

STEP6 :

•  Now I’m on the refinement stage.
• I started with the details on the eyes (putting eyelashes, adding detail on the pupil), the hair (adding hair strands and highlights) and the  dress (defining contours).  I also added the shoes (not too comfy to go barefoot, eh?) and put some freckles on the face. I also glued…er, put the girl’s hands.
• At this stage, I’m on to cleaning up my output – mostly blending the colors together and removing unwanted lines.
• I went on by tweaking the background a bit to give it some texture.

STEP7 :

•  Here, I added a leash, made the arms thicker, and darkened the girl’s arm on the right. For more depth, I added the sky.
• Then I made a few light adjustment overlay to make it more blue. I think it gives a warmer illusion.

Whew! It’s done! 

I  hope you find this helpful. Please feel free to comment / critique my work. There is a lot of room for improvement.

Thanks!

You can also view my gallery here:    http://pinterest.com/desfeliciano/heartworks/