The Fire is Finished

It's done!

Last Wednesday I introduced Word Bubble #1 (HERE),  and shared the speed drawing video of me drawing it. Well, it's now finished and photographed. I didn't add the varnish yet, and am excited to see it after that, since varnish always makes the colors pop.

Here she be, with my motivational word Fire! My word was based on this quote:

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." --Albert Schweitzer

(can click to enlarge)

This was drawn on a small Aquabee Sketchpad... too small, as it turned out. Thanks to good ol' Dicky Blick I should be getting a nice new larger pad soon. :-)

Here's some WIP pics. 

Here's the original black and white:

I decided to go with my Caran d' Ache Neocolor II's (watersoluble artist crayons). Love those puppies! They are chunky, and force me to not fiddle around with minutiae. I started with the blue family:

Progress:

Got all caught up in the ArtNebulae, and forgot to take more pics. So this is when almost done:

And here, before varnish, finished:

In addition to the Neocolor II's, I used black medium and fine Pitt Artist pens, acrylic medium, and gloss acylic medium/varnish. 

Oh, and on the outer edges - though it doesn't show in the photo - I rubbed on a little interference blue Pearl Ex. They are powdered pigments by Jacquard, which gave the edging a pearlescent sheen that slightly changes color as you move the page. You can use them for almost anything, sealed by the acrylic medium. See them Here.  Too bad they don't show up in a photo... they are gorgeous. :-)

The texture around the outer edges was done with spattering from an old toothbrush. Just made the colors a little soupier and went at it. 

One tip: since the Neocolor II's are watersoluble, if you want it to stay put and not smudge or blend any more, just use a bit of medium instead of/or in addition to water when wetting them with a brush. Towards the end, when I was working on final details, I would scribble with the crayon onto my palette, then dip my brush into water and/or  acrylic medium, and use it that way. It was like using thin acrylic paint, and won't smear when dry, or be disturbed by subsequent layers.

A new video camera is on my wish list, so as soon as I get that, I'm hoping to do more Word Bubbles. It was a blast!

Happy painting,

Retta