Monday, December 30, 2013

Let it Go






Hello everyone! I hope you guys had a great December and enjoyed the holidays. Earlier in December my friend and I went to see 'Frozen'. I am not going to spoil anything, but for those who haven't seen it yet, you must! It's an enjoyable movie and it's great to see Disney go back to their more traditional 'musical movies'.

My friend requested that I should make a drawing of Elsa. Normally I would have had this finished earlier this month, but things where really hectic, and not by just the holiday shopping and whatnot. My grandma was in the hospital earlier this month, and a day before the 24th my mother got really sick. As of this week I've been the errand girl and doing the shopping, which I don't mind. Grandma is on her way to a long recovery, and Mom is slowly improving.

Here are some progress shots of this painting.


                                     Here is the initial sketch. I had this done for awhile.  


I transferred the sketch on watercolor paper and I then taped it down on foam board. Since I'm using watercolor, I don't water the paper to buckle up more than I know it's going to. Plus, taping it creates nice clean borders. :)


Since Elsa is on the small side and I'm going to do a full wash for the background, I don't want paint to get on her. I used liquid frisket to masked her. Liquid frisket is another name for masking fluid, and this one has an orange tint to it, so it's easy to spot when it comes time to take it off.


The background is done. When the background was still wet, I sprinkled some sea salt to create the snow and flurries Elsa is unleashing.
 

I carefully peeled off the mask and started to work on Elsa.


Elsa is mostly finished.
I took out some of my watercolored pencils to fix up and add to a couple things. The sea salt decided to mutiny and refused to work. I then took out my white gel pen and create the snow and flurries myself.

And there you have it!

I hope you guys have a great new year. I will see you next year!


Title: Let it Go
Medium: Watercolors
Paper: 9x12 on Canson Coldpressed XL series

Friday, December 6, 2013

Medusa



I finally managed to get Medusa done.

The story of Medusa is really sad. One of the main stories with her was that Medusa use to be a beautiful priestess for the Temple of Athena. Many men sought after her, but she choose to serve Athena. The god Poseidon found her beautiful as well, and one day entered the temple and raped Medusa. Instead of being angry with Poseidon, Athena set her fury on Medusa for disgracing her temple (it was expected of Poseidon to go after females, so that was why he was excused). In anger, Athena turned Medusa in the hideous monster that she is now. Since then, Medusa lived a solitary life away from people, because gazing upon her turns them into stone.

I did some research to find out what venomous snakes were native to the Greece area, and found about the Vipera Ammodytes (Horned Viper). I decided to reference them for Medusa's "hair".


Paper: Strathmore Toned Gray (9x12)
Medium: Colored Pencils (Faber Castell Polychromos)