IF: launch

Launching rumors
Acrylic

IF: swept

This week's prompt really goes along with my life lately! Getting swept up by your own emotions.

IF: afterwards

Its been a long time since I participated in Illustration Friday! Im excited to get back into the swing of things :)

Testing out Rives BFK

I ran out of large sheets of the usual paper I paint on (Arches watercolor, hotpress) so I decided to experiment with some of the Rives BFK sheets I have. I cut a large square into quarters and had 4 sheets of about 7 inches across, which is a nice change. The last painting I did was much larger and I ended up getting bored with the work halfway through. Eventually it was finished but I feel like I could have learned the same things if it was half the size. So this time around I wanted to do a few smaller, quicker works.

Working on this paper was very different from my usual technique. Since I was working on printmaking paper rather than watercolor paper, I found that I couldn't glaze colors as effectively since the paper just soaked everything up and turned dark whenever water was applied, making it difficult to judge how much paint I should put down.

Although I'm not too happy with these results and wont use this paper for painting, I feel like I've learned something. What that something is I can't really tell yet, haha.

A self portrait in acrylic which I edited slightly in photoshop. The original is less vibrant.

I had such high hopes for this rooster! I really liked the drawing and I feel like the way I ended up painting him takes away from his character somehow. I might re-do this one when I get good paper again because roosters are awesome.

This was painted with flat colors to counter the rooster image. I wanted to have minimal shading and leave it very flat. It looks more like my older digital work, which is what I was going for. The gradient was added in photoshop.

speedpaints

Some recent photoshop speedpaints. It feels like its been years since I painted digitally! I really just wanted to aimlessly mess around with colors.

Finally figured out a technique that is fun and comfortable for me! I've been struggling with finding a definite style for so long because I love photoshop, but working digitally means you have so many options and I keep jumping back and forth between them. This past year I've been experimenting with every traditional medium I could get before finally settling on good old acrylic on paper.

beeeees

Quick drawing from the other night! Found this sketch in one of my old sketchbooks and decided to slap some color to it.