Leaf Ghost #223

Hop-Frog continues. I think the king may have pushed his jester just a bit too far.

 Over the holidays I did some upgrading in my studio space at home. One of the changes was a fancy new iPad stand that holds the tablet up away from the table. It’s just as easy to read there, and it frees up some space.

The other big addition for this one is a video showing how it was created. If you were ever curious about what goes into leaf ghosts in general and the Poe series in particular, this shows a quick step-by-step. 

Leaf Ghost #222

 

Perhaps it’s auspicious that #222 was created on 1/11.

Same colors as #218 only with foreground and background reversed.

Leaf Ghost #221

One of the rules of leaf ghosts is that the model and the painting (or drawing) are directly related only by the outline of the leaf. The art is never an attempt to accurately recreate the subject.

 However, every once in awhile the two end up at least somewhat related. I’ve noticed that pictures of wet leaves tend to become watercolors. And with this ghost I thought it might be fun if the background at least vaguely suggested bricks (again without making any effort to duplicate the colors from the photo).

This also supplied a good excuse to try out my new set of Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. Doubtless a topic I’ll explore in greater detail in some future post.

 

Leaf Ghost #220

First ghost of the new year. The saga of Hop-Frog continues.

Leaf Ghost #219

Blue and green rather than red and green for my annual holiday ghost. Gouache, Cerulean Blue and Viridian, both combined with Titanium White for the lighter squares.

Leaf Ghost #218

The background pair (Copic BG72 Ice Ocean and BG10 Cool Shadow) is one of my favorite matches, and the foreground pair (YR61 Spring Orange and YR2 Pale Sepia) is another. But I don’t think I’ve ever used both pairs in one ghost before. They’re a good combination.

 Not to mention that this damaged leaf is pareidolia city. 

Leaf Ghost #217

At long last “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether” draws to a close. I can’t believe I’ve been working on this same story since April, spanning nine leaf ghosts.

 In October I watched a string of old Vincent Price horror movies, including several of the Poe pieces he did with Roger Corman. The experience inspired me to switch my intended order up a bit. So after I finished the story, I moved on to “The Haunted Palace” (even though the Price movie had little enough to do with the Poe poem).

It was short enough to fit on the page with room to spare, so from there I went to “Hop Frog.” In addition to being one of my favorite short stories, it also formed a part of the plot of Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death, another October marathon entry. And I fear another tale that looks longer than I remembered.