Dazed

Hello, all.

It's been a very busy week for me, so I don't have a lot to post. I was helping out one of my illustrative heroes, James Ransome, who came to NC to recruit for Syracuse University, where he teaches. Great guy, great teacher, great artist all around. His work is definitely work looking at.

Illustration Friday has gotten away from me, but I hope to do a few sketches. I have in-laws in Atlanta, so I will be gone for most of this week.

I didn't want to leave without some post, so I am putting up something from my experiments. I have had issues with my technique as of late, so I decided to go back to basics and try something simple to work with.

This is a piece of an image that I started, but it crashed and burned. I wanted to have something to work with without it being a major piece, so I chose to experiment on it. My techinque involves an underdrawing over gessoed board, then a fix with clear matte spray paint. I then apply a neutral layer of brown oil paint on top, thinned with turpenoid. It stays wet for a couple of days. I use this time to render shadows, removing paint with a kneadable eraser, then blending it with brushes. Once I like what I have, I apply colored pencil to the top.

This works well for me, because I am color-blind. I feel much more confident, since the colors are direct and the oils provide a sense of unity, even if my sense of color is off.

Hope to post again soon.

Have a great week!