Walkthrough of Source and Mirror (BBC Merlin; G)

[einahpets]

Walkthrough of 'Source and Mirror'
A BBC Merlin fanart
Medium: Watercolor and metallic paint pens.
Dimensions: Each panel is 6''x16'', the piece of paper used is 13''x18''

I'm a traditional artist and I never usually have inprogress shots of my paintings. 
However, I remembered to take photos of this piece which was worked on (off and on) for about a month.
If you have any specific questions about the piece, or my techniques, just ask!

In my fanart career I don't usually find myself doing any preliminary sketches (I blame drawing nude models in college). 
I get a mental idea of the composition/characters and find reference pictures to match. 
My research/picture acquisition for pieces is always extensive. 
Though once found the final drawing begins.
This particular piece took the record for reference images.  It required me to find many pictures of the same type of objects. 
Those objects varied from Roman and Arabian arches, tile work, flowers, mythological symbols, celestial objects, stained glass, art nouveau posters, celtic knot designs, animals, and the characters/actors themselves. 
I had close to 50 tabs open in my browser for all the images!  (I would have saved the pictures but my laptop was on it's last legs and I really just needed the inspiration from the visuals to give me a sense how things should look).
Let me tell you, I held my breath every time Firefox crashed. 


For this piece I was inspired by art nouvou/tarot cards/stained glass. 
So those factors were the main influence for the composition and dimensions.
I used a ruler for the basic straight lines (the ones seen in the first picture) and then free-handed the rest.
In these drawings you see the inverted arch on the left change as I was dissatisfied with my original idea (you'll see changes like this through the drawing process).
The bottom image is the completed drawn out background.






Now adding the characters to the piece.
I usually work from the top left then to the right bottom to avoid smudging the pencil. 
Though I don't always follow my own advice (as you can see in this piece) and just needed to draw Merlin first.
I actually used some tracing paper to help place the people into the piece.  Just the 'skeleton' was drawn (circle for the head, rectangles for the body, neck, arms, and hands ... more like geometry than an actual human ... perhaps one day I'll do a tutorial on how I draw figures) of Merlin and Arthur and then I just refined the people on the page.
The inverted arch on the right was also altered as I was drawing Merlin in.
The last picture shows added embellishments to Merlin's inverted arch.




Painting begins!
First the skies (behind both the characters and flowers), then the tiles.
Arthur's tiles were actually inspired by peacock feathers.
My watercolor technique tends to be more pigment than water. 
I like rich, bold colors.




Painting of the background continues!
First the flowers, then the Celtic banners.




And now onto Merlin and Arthur.
Starting with clothing then onto skin and weapons.
I had the hardest time getting Arthur's skin right.
My watercolor technique is sorta backwards sometimes. 
Usually you're supposed to leave the paper through for whites, but most times I take concentrated white from the tube and paint with that to get whites if I need too.  I should probably start using gouche. 




Filling in the 'in-between lines' with black.
Changed Arthur's dark blue eyes to silver to complete my vision.
Gold and silver metallic paint pen finishes the piece!





Close up images of faces. 
You can see my backwards watercolor skills on Arthur. 
Specifically his hair and eyes.
On a side note, I scanned this at a ridiculously large resolution.
Also, if anyone wants a specific section of the piece zoomed in just ask!





Final piece can be viewed at my deviantart.
In-progress photos also found at my deviantart (it's fun to open all these up in order and click through it fast.  Lazy man's gif).

Comments

[swamp_mouse]

Amazing to see it come to life. SO beautiful! Love them! SQUEE.

[einahpets]

Thank you!
It's great to have the photos and to see the process myself.
I'm amazed how much I've forgotten how the art was made.
(I love the boys too, oh so much!)

[zephre]

this is fabulous - totally fascinating to watch the application of color to each section.
and such a wonderful result! glorious!

[einahpets]

Thank you!
Haha, I guess working each section is easiest way for me to work with watercolors.
Well with pieces like this. :)

[ratcreature]

How interesting! It's great to see your process.

[einahpets]

Thank you!

[leochi]

Thank you for posting this, it's really wonderful.
I adore watching artists at work and getting to see WIPs.

[einahpets]

Thank you!
I'm right there with you, I love seeing the process.

[yue_ix]

This is great! It's always lovely to see people's process and methods as they go along. I'm impressed with how clean you manage to keep everything and how vibrant the colours come out, as well as all the metaphors you put in there without making the picture look too busy. Also, wow, those are fine lines to be done with a brush! It never works for me an I always end up using a pen and dipping the nib in watercolour instead of ink. Maybe I should use much bigger canvas like you did.

Do you work with something under your hand to keep it from smudging fresh or pencil areas? Your colours have a bit of a thick look to them and I'm wondering how quickly they dry compared to the very diluted style I'm used to and how that affects the final look of things and possibility of effects.

Scans and photos can never really reproduce the effect of metallic gel pens, but since these already look fantastic I bed that they are simply gorgeous. It's really cool to see them from birth like this.

(If I may, would you consider x-posting this on drawmelot and/or drawmelot? For certain others would really love to see this!)

[einahpets]

First off thank you!

Busyness was definitely a worry here! But I guess if there are enough 'simpler' sections the effect comes off well :)
For the fine lines, I have a size 1 brush that comes in handy for small sections. Most of the time it's a steady hand and just the right viscosity of pigment to water for the line to go on smoothly. Can't tell you how many times my hand puts too much pressure down! Or the pigment isn't wet enough and just leaves a 'chalky' line. But canvas size definitely helps with achieving the fine lines!

I noticed that the pigment dries rather quickly for being so thick, definitely slower than a more diluted mix, but quick regardless (and it tends to be tacky more than dry but it's workable at that stage).
But since it is so thick my sweaty palm can smudge the color, even on dried sections days old. Usually I'll have a tissue (or my preferred sweatshirt sleeve with a thumbhole in it) under my palm while I'm working to prevent my sweat from smudging the color. It works too for pencil!
I've always been more attracted to opaque paintings, so I guess it's more of a preference to have opaque color than anything technique wise. Though I've never been a 'bleeder' so that may be one technique somewhat difficult to do with thicker paints. Regardless how thick I go, certain colors will always be translucent (certain blues and yellows come to mind). It's that problem which has me interested in buying a set of gouche.
I could paint in oils but the smell would kill me and the dry time is too long for someone impatient as myself. And acrylics are too fake and plastic for my taste. I like the reversibility of watercolor and how they handle. I guess I'm just forcing them to do what I want.

They're actually metallic paint pens with the 'brush' tip. The ones that you shake around and then press the nib into paper to get the paint to flow.
To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised how well the metallic scanned.
But it's true, in RL it's much more powerful.

(I can definitely x-post this! Should I tag it under *resource and pimp? I'm going to have to join the drawmelot here as well)

[the_little_owl]

I could paint in oils but the smell would kill me and the dry time is too long for someone impatient as myself.

I don't know if you heard about them, but there are water-mixable oil colours on the market now, without the solvent that gave me a headache. I can paint with them in my living room now instead of outdoors, and the paints dries much faster than the original version of oil colour, but still looks like oil colour and not like acrylics at all.

Here's a link to the colours I use:
http://www.cobra.royal-talens.com/3/products.html (the website is displayed better with IE than with Firefox)

[einahpets]

I've actually used those before!
But didn't find them to my taste.
I have this thing where I like to feel a certain consistency as I'm mixing and then when my brush goes against the canvas. I wasn't feeling it with the water oils.
But I think I might give them a shot again in the future.
I appreciate you sending the website along to me!

[the_little_owl]

It's stunning to see what you can do with watercolours! It's amazing.

[einahpets]

Thank you!
Though I'm surprised I haven't been arrested for watercolor abuse! ;)