A cold, an undersea horse and a sketch for a friend.

This week I worked on a line and wash painting.  I did the wash first and added salt to create some white sparkles (which are created as the salt goes into solution and pushes the paint away from each salt grain.)  Then I sketched in pencil and drew in ink a sea horse.  They are such fascinating creatures.

I found it quite tricky to sketch loosely on top of my finished wash as I was aware that I couldn’t remove my sketch lines.  But it was still easier than drawing with ink straight off.

Once I’d drawn my ink seahorse I then went back to the watercolours to colour him in.  I also added some white gouache to my pallet to give me some highlights.

Here’s the final picture…

 

I also made a quick (5 min) ink sketch in my sketchbook of a Marvel character called Wolverine.  He’s not really my ‘cup of tea’ but a friend of mine really likes him so I’m looking at eventually making a dark, modern style painting of him for her.

This is my initial sketch…

It was drawn using just an 0.05 Multiliner (Staedtler) and then toned with my W&N greyscale brushpens.  Again(!!!) I forgot that these go through the page of my current sketchbook – so I wrecked the next page, but again they gave me a finish which I liked.

Then once scanned into my PC I added some blood to the spike things on his hands, which I now kind of regret because I did it quickly and rather badly and I’n not sure it really works at all.    🙂

What I would really like to do with this Wolverine portrait for a friend, is to work in my version of the style of an artist called Christopher Lovell.  He draws and paints low saturation  and greyscale pictures which have a dark sort of theme.  They just look fantastic.

Here’s a link to part of his Gallery…

Christopher Lovell Personal Gallery

And here are some linked pictures from his website…

(By Christopher Lovell)

 

 

(By Christopher Lovell)

 

 

(By Christopher Lovell)

 

The detail and the tonal range of his work is totally stunning.  I really love it.  Now obviously I’m not even in the same league as this guy but I would like to try to do a Wolverine portrait with minimal low saturation colour, or in greyscale with a lot of detail and tonal range.  I think Wolverine really lends himself to the style.  We’ll see how it turns out.

 

(Hugh Jackman as Wolverine from Marvel based film series by 20th Century Fox)

 

PS:  I’m not starting my wolverine picture yet as I’ve got this horrible cold at the moment and it’s all I can do to get myself into work everyday and look after my son.  Hopefully it’ll ease off in a few days.