Frog Stew

 Hello all! It's been forever and a day since I last posted something, I know. I've been trying to figure out a way to balance my full time job and time managing my art (I'm still working some things out). Anyway, while Halloween isn't for a few months it doesn't mean witches get to rest for a whole year. This is a late Mother's Day present for my mom who absolutely loves all things witchy (and frogs). Better late than never. It's been a long while since I used my copics, so I decided to use those as my medium of choice.

First off, to start this piece I actually tried a couple new products. I love the natural feel of dip pens when inking. Personally, I feel have better control with them verses the usual technical pens. While I have dabble with dip pens for little things in the past, this is the first time I've used them for a finished art piece. I had to make sure I got the right ink though. This particular ink I used is Kaimei Drawing Pen Ink. This ink handles alcohol based markers with breeze. No bleeding issue. However it will NOT work with watercolors, so a separate ink is necessary for that work. For the dip pen I used the G Model nib for the variety of line widths I could make. For the super fine lines I used a quill nib.

 After I had the foreground ink I used a lavender color for the base color for the background. My goal was to make a dark muted background as I wanted the focus on the witch.

The at this point the wall was mostly finished (saved for the window and the broom). I tried making the area around the sconces lighter to show the area of light from the candles.

 Floor and trim is mostly done. The color on the floor is the same used on the wall minus the lavender shade. I'm trying to keep everything unified.

 Started working on the witch. I made her a redhead because I like coloring redheads. It's such a pretty hair color.

 It's almost finished at this point. Just coloring the little details. I saved the window for last because I wanted to see how the overall picture was going to look.

So there you have it. I also added some warm gray in her hair too to help tone down the vibrant color and to harmonize more with the rest of the piece. Overall I am happy how it turned out. More importantly my Mom really likes it. Mission accomplished.

Title: Frog Stew
Copic marker on smooth bristol