Hey everyone. This is going to be the first blog post of its kind: where I talk about the more technique-oriented aspects of my process (with photo documentation!). I may do more of this in the future; I’m planning on doing an entry sometime soon about my old art, and its progression from then to now. But that’s not this entry, so it’ll be saved for another time. I apologize in advance for my less-than-optimal photography; I still haven’t quite gotten the hang of the best technique to photograph your work when you can’t scan it.

So let’s talk about this process. Recently I was commissioned to do an “expressive” sort of painting of the Boston skyline. My customer sent me a couple of photos she wanted me to use for inspiration:

The second one I felt was compositionally more interesting, offering a view that’s not often seen in photos of Boston. The first one, however, has some nice colors that pop well, so initially I planned to use a color scheme more like the first, though I wanted to borrow the layout of the second.

On a piece of (I think) white Canson paper, I outlined an 11″x14″ rectangle, marked each edge with artist’s tape, and left enough of a border around that it could be matted without trouble. In plain old HB pencil, with a LOT! of ruled perspective lines, I drew the contours of the buildings.

There we go. You can also see that I added a couple of birds flying, because I thought that area of the picture looked empty, and I REALLY wanted to put something living in there. I feel like a lot of city photography tends to look really travel-brochure-y, without a lot of life to it, and you know, if she’d wanted a photo, she’d have bought a photo and not a painting. So, birds.

When I had a finished drawing, it was time to start painting. My customer had asked for a watercolor, so I gave the sky a layer of a really diluted Prussian blue wash.

Sorry, this is a really awful picture, but you can get the gist of it. Shock! When I did the wash, the paper buckled. Note to self: next time, use Arches; it’s never let me down before. Curse you, Canson. Needless to say, the buckling discouraged me and so I didn’t work on it for a while. In that photo, you can see at least part of my media and work station. I use this old drafting table Alan brought with him when he moved in. My paint palette is over on the right, and all my watercolors are Winsor-Newton liquid ones.

Regardless of bucklage, my next step was to decide the colors of my shadows. The photo I was using for color reference had a strong blue tint to all the shadows, so I took a cue from it and started blocking in my darks with a flat brush and the same Prussian blue, a little more saturated this time.

There’s more of that workspace. You can see a lot more of my (nasty) palette to the right, my composition reference photo in the upper left, and most importantly, the painting with blocked-out shadows. This stage wasn’t too difficult just because most of what’s in there is architecture, very right-angled and straight horizontals and verticals, without a lot of value ambiguity (either the side of the building is facing the sun, or it’s not). Unfortunately, this is the stage where I stopped documenting the steps of the process, because at this point, colors went down pretty quickly and if I were stopping to take pictures of each step it might NEVER have gotten done. =)

What IS good to keep in mind about this step of the process, is that I eventually scrapped my idea of fall foliage on the trees. I could’ve put it, but I ended up giving the buildings a much warmer tint in the highlights than I’d initially intended, so it needed some cool viridian green in the trees to balance it out.

This is the final painting.

After I finished putting in all the color, I sharpened up some edges with a really fine-tip pen (black Copic multiliner, 0.03mm). Even though I chose to sharpen some lines and edges, my aim wasn’t to do a precise technical illustration; I wanted a more expressive, “mushy” feel, which I think I got in the colors. I also wasn’t at all sure what time of day this is supposed to look like; when you look at it one way, it looks like dusk, but other times it looks like dawn. Let’s not pay any attention to where the sun would actually be on the city at those times of day, because that’s completely not the point. What I was going for was a warm, loose painting with a somewhat elusive sunlit quality, and I think I achieved that.

Finally, I have a bonus picture, taken by my customer, of the piece matted and framed (after I sent it to her, she did the framing herself).

There you have it. A commissioned piece from conception to final presentation. Though I don’t do a lot of cityscapes, I did enjoy having a chance to practice my perspective. I am pleased with it, though (as always) I can still spot some flaws–but really, what artist ever does a piece that has absolutely nothing about it they think is a little off? I’m pleased with it, and to my pleasure, my customer is also happy with it. I do wish I’d been able to scan it, but my equipment just isn’t big enough for that. At least it’s a true Molly Brewer original! =D

I figured this is probably a lot more efficient than putting up a whole gallery, especially since Wordpress sometimes won’t let me put pictures in thumbnails but rather forces a full-view into the page itself. I’d rather this post not take up a million pixels, so I thought it might be better to compress it all into a single image. You lose a little detail, but can still get the gist of it, I think.

This is all the recent stuff I’ve been drawing for Astral Arcana–yesterday I think I spent a good three hours scanning, level correcting and dual-saving what probably amounted to about 20 images. (Of course, with the scanner I have, it took five times longer than it should’ve.) Anyway, I now have jpgs and psds of all of these, so I’m free to color them at my leisure. And I think I will! Lately I’ve been trying to experiment with Painter more.

Anyway, there’s a picture in here somewhere. Here you go!

You’ll recognize the two colored dress designs and the “winter Rian” drawing, I think, but the rest of it is brand new.