Mary in Color- Final

Final color drawing of Mary

Note* Just click on the label Mary, or scroll down, to see the entire work-in-progress. The new scanner worked great! I only had to do minor color adjustments. (I did tweak the color slightly after seeing this scan online. )

Mary in Color-Part 3

Detail of Mary.

At this point I've concentrated on finishing up everything on Mary. Next, I'll be making some adjustments to the reflections and moving on to the wood for the window frame. I should be able to post the finish on Monday.

Mary in Color-Part 2

I've finished up the leaves and most of the areas reflecting in the glass. The sepia color worked perfect as a base under the green leaves. I was able to get the depth I wanted, with less layers, by working over a complimentary color. I used ground pastel dust applied with tissues for the blue areas. Everything else is color pencil. While working on the leaves, I was able to take advantage of the view out my studio window. As long as it wasn't too late in the day, the sun hitting the leaves of the lemon tree just outside my window made a great source of reference.

Mary in Color-Part 1

With this illustration of Mary, my work has become true mixed-media. The final underpainting was done in graphite on vellum. (Previous post.) For the stage shown here I scanned the graphite drawing, then worked on the blue areas of glass in Photoshop. I also isolated areas that I wanted to print out in a sepia tone for the underpainting. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time and I felt this piece, with all the warm tones, would be the perfect one to try it on. After printing this out on my art paper I will be layering in pastel and color pencil.

Coming soon...Mary in Color

Now that I have a large-format scanner, I will be able to scan in one piece, hopefully, the final color drawing of Mary. If you don't remember, or didn't see it before, I did a work-in-progress of the B&W underpainting of Mary. Since I'm having some issues with the software on the new scanner and am waiting to hear back from tech support, I'll post the color in stages each day this week. So stay tuned!

Final B&W Underpainting

Drawing Mary Finished!

This turned out to be a great study in the art of the value study! The darkness of the glass, which basically works like the background, really changed how I needed to handle the values of the images within the piece. I ended up putting the glass into a layer in Photoshop so I could easily adjust the value and decide what was working best. When I add the color, I plan on going very warm with her hand and face. I might also darken their value slightly. But for now, this will work great for the under painting.

Drawing Mary Part 4

...and now you know who Mary is! I have one more step to post on this black and white under painting. I'm still working on the value of the background and creating the glass itself. I feel I need to push the reflective quality to distinguish between inside and outside.

Drawing Mary Part 3

Here's the start of the layout for the entire piece.

Drawing Mary Part 2

A little more of the work-in-progress of Mary. I'm doing this in graphite. I plan on using this as an under painting to do the final in colored pencil. At this point I will leave some areas light in value so I can layer light colors on top.

Drawing Mary

A while ago I was having trouble deciding what to draw next. I had a lot of options, some I knew I should be working on now. Another one I didn't need to be working on, but the whole concept was so cool that I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had started gathering reference material and had decided that was what I'd draw next. Well, somehow things just change. Opportunities come up. So instead I'm working on a totally different piece. One I had no idea I'd even be doing.

It's funny how when you get to the stage where you're deciding just what the character will look like, you find yourself thinking a lot about this person. And the excitement builds. I'm so glad to be drawing again! I'll post this as a work-in-progress, at least the black and white stage. I'm open to any comments along the way.