Felix swears, he really did have help in that battle that time.
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I’m making my way through the pages of that Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook and, y’know, I don’t hate it. It’s ok. One good thing about it has been that, because it’s been such a challenge to see whether it can live up to its hype, I’ve been filling the pages with test pieces, instead of being too timid to “ruin” the book by doing art wrong.
This sketch took me a while to figure out, and the pencils were erased many times before the page was inked then the light wash was put on. The paper held up extremely well to all the erasing, and although it seemed to buckle a lot with the water, it’s flattening out. Not completely flat, but no worse than the previous pages.
I was going to watercolour the whole thing, add in more Felix-y details, and include Venus in the drawing, but started liking it as is. Of course, he might see Venus anyway. It’s hard to tell with him.
Alternatively, he might be describing a fish that got away….
Hmm. This just dredged up a memory. Once when I drew something and didn’t completely define each finger, the editor said it looked like the character’s fingers had been “fused together in a horrible industrial accident.” I’m not bothered.
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So, this happened by request. Roman Deadpool will soon go to the person who requested him…
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Today’s warmup sketch is based on the “Antikythera youth” statue that was found in the same shipwreck site as the Antikythera mechanism. On Fluid cold-press paper; pencil, ancient palette watercolours, no subligaculum.
I’m sure I’ll find all sorts of things to nitpick about the drawing in the morning, as I always do 🙂
click to see larger
A recent warmup; testing the newly made Cyprus green paint, which was so soft (from the honey, most likely) it oozed out of the palette and made a run for freedom; and trying the dot sample of Schmincke-brand Potter’s Pink watercolour.
The test mixes of blues and green with sepia are all Sennelier paints, and the other swatches are the ancient palette. In the Felix sketch I tried some colour techniques used in ancient portraits, but you can’t really tell, if you ask me.
I like this particular brand’s Potter’s Pink so much (you may have seen me enthusing about it on Twitter) that I’d add it to my ancient palette box (even though it’s just an “old” pigment, not “ancient”) to keep it handy; but it’s not available yet in North America, as far as anyone can tell. Maybe soon! Until it is, I’m rationing the sample.
Felix’s blue cloak continues my obsession with Lapis Lazuli blue….
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