Sunday, March 26, 2017

water color experiment

There is an opportunity for me in the not so distant future to do some illustration work, designing some characters with the finished product being done in water color. I didn't use to do my cartoons in water color but once I got started I got addicted to how they looked all painted up. It may just be me but the way I cartoon and then paint them seems to work well with each other, but I am biased on this topic.

So with some new illustration time I needed to replenish my water color paper supplies and before I ordered any I took some time to research the different papers out there. I knew for now I would stick with Strathmore paper as I have been happy with it thus far. I used the 140 lb. paper so the only question left was series 400 or series 500 and cold or hot press paper. I ended up buying 400 series cold press as this is what I am comfortable with but also bought some hot press 500 series to experiment and see how another paper feels.


pencil sketch
So to get back into a rhythm I thought I would just do some quick cartoons to get the juices flowing, as always I start with a pencil sketch. From the pencil sketch I get out my light table and place the water color paper on top to transfer the design. During this time I can modify and change features in an attempt to continue to tweak the design. In this experiment, I painted them both with the same exact colors to help me see any difference between the two papers.




hot press 140 lb.
cold press 140 lb.
This was a fun experiment and even though they have different facial features and detailing it still gives me a start for defining the different way the two papers work with my painting style. Before I end this I should mention that I always finish off my painted pieces with a thin black outlining, I don't feel that they are finished without this. I use a Pilot HI-TEC 0.3 mm pen for this and am extremely happy with the results.

as always, 
"Good night and May God Bless"

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