Tuesday, April 03, 2012

The Birth of Timebird

My sister, Karen, is a writer. She wrangles her words over at KarenElizabethBrown, her writer's blog. 


Recently Karen joined a crazy fun challenge called the A to Z Challenge, where one must write a post for 26 days straight, using the corresponding letter of the alphabet as the base of the topic.

I was happy to be able to help out on "A" day by lending some images demonstrating the process by which a painting comes to life, and Karen used this as a great analogy for the writing process.

What intrigued me was a comment a reader left, describing the process as a "painting being born". Being born! I loved that... the idea of a "birth".

I don't know about other artists, but I suspect most of us feel very much that way... it's our "baby"!

So... I thought you might enjoy seeing another birth! I hope you enjoy the peek behind the curtain. :-) 

I don't have sketches from the very beginning, but you can see some of the process below, including my expensive pencil holder--the spam can! :-D

 (Can click any pic to enlarge)


Here's my set up with the Caran d'Ache Neocolor II's used plus some watercolor pencils, on black illustration board.



At one point, I ran it through photoshop, to check values, and adjusted as needed.




 At this stage, there is no water yet. Just the neocolor II's and WC pencils.




 Almost ready for water.




 Starting to carefully brush on water.



 More water, more neocolor II highlights and color adjustments.



 Final color tweaks and all done... Timebird is born!




Happy painting,

Retta

8 comments:

  1. Oh I love seeing this "birth". Such a colorful baby you have!

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    1. Thanks, Bluezy, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :-)

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  2. Love, love, LOVE your art! I really wish you'd explain uh-lot more in depth about what you did here...but I guess folks get paid for teaching classes like that, eh? haha

    Beautiful...Loretta, you are so talented, and I mean that sincerely and whole-heartedly! I am doing the A to Z challenge, the one going on for April. I'm going to check out your sister's blog, as well.

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    1. Hi Margaret!
      I sure appreciate the feedback. As you can see, my dinky art blog is a quiet place, so I suppose I'm not sure just what people would enjoy seeing. Thanks for the idea, and thank you for visiting!

      Loretta

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  3. Anonymous5:27 PM

    That is simply amazing! :D Deb

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    1. Welcome to my "other" blog, Deb. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :-)

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  4. Well, you know I love your art. I'm a huge fan. I have a beautiful piece I'm staring at right now, since it hangs over my monitor.

    AtoZ is exhausting ...

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    1. Thanks, Mary. I'm a huge fan of your writing!
      On "Q" day of the A to Z challenge my sister wrote about Quirky, and we were laughing that I immediately thought of your story Plantgirl as being the perfect example of a quirky story, LOL!

      Only one more week to go. :-D

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