Keeping track of progress on creative projects
In a blue mood to start Leaf Ghosts Volume Two. Copic BG10 Cool Shadow and BG72 Ice Ocean in back, the same background as #26. Kinda funny that “blue green” and “background” can be abbreviated the same way. B06 Peacock Blue and B39 Prussian Blue for the foreground. BG78 Bronze for the drop shadow.
A little visual play on words to get the whole line from the song. Answer and explanation in the comments.
The big news this morning is that today’s leaf ghost went on the final page of the first leaf ghost sketchbook. This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever completely filled a sketchbook. It’s kind of a weird feeling.
As the first ghost in the book was created with Prismacolor pencils, I thought it fitting to use the same materials for the last one. I even watched a Skill Share lesson on working with colored pencils to see how to hatch with them.
I’d describe the results as semi-successful. The colors are Dark Brown, Burnt Ochre, Dark Green, Apple Green and 70% warm grey. At this level of saturation, the difference between the colors (especially the dark hues) is super subtle. Indeed, before I added the drop shadow, it was a little hard to even recognize it as a leaf.
I also needed to alter my usual drawing pattern in order to avoid smudging. The thing I liked the least was that it was impossible to erase the under-sketch, which is still clearly visible in the final drawing.
Wet on wet watercolors, this time in the mix media sketchbook rather than the larger watercolor paper. The drop shadows need some work, but I’m pleased with the rest of it.
A couple of days ago I was listening to a playlist of old Elton John tunes, and one of the songs reminded me that he did an album back in 1985 called “Ice on Fire.” That reminded me of the color scheme I used for Leaf Ghost 26, one of the first ones I was ever really happy with.
After my last success reversing the foreground and background colors from a previous ghost, I gave that another try here.
Snow on St. Patrick’s Day. In honor of the occasion (the day, not the snow), I reversed the colors of #55.
After a couple of days that didn’t exactly go as planned, I needed the meditative calmness of a dip pen leaf ghost.
Seasonal colors (W&N Brilliant Green and Orange).
For some time now I’ve been writing in my diary using Stabilo (is it Stab-i-lo or Stay-bi-lo?) point 88 fine 0.4 pens, blue for the dates and black for the body copy. More directly to the point for the current project, I also have a set of various colors that I’ve been using for the labels at the bottom of leaf ghosts. So this afternoon I thought it might be interesting to try drawing the ghost itself with a range of greens (33, 36, 53 and 63) from the Stabilo set.
By the time I finished cross-hatching the whole page, I managed to get a bit of ink on my hand. Oddly it didn’t smear the drawing itself at all, which I really appreciated.
The lack of need to dip made the process go a little faster, though this many lines still take awhile to draw. As with previous cross-hatched efforts, I felt a drop shadow would detract from the overall effect. So I left it off.
By now ghost fans will likely recognize the colors. These are the same W&N inks I first used for #41. This time I applied them with a brush rather than a dip nib. It produces an interesting texture. And it’s a lot faster.
After doing a series of quick Copic pieces, I thought I’d get spring break underway with something more experimental.
Some firsts here:
This is my first time freehanding acrylics. I used paints designed for plastic models (Valejo Model colors), so this is the first one I’ve done using colors that are intended to simulate substances (leather in the background and metals in the foreground). I’ve never used a brush to apply metallics before. I found that it worked better than using a dip nib with metallic ink. However, I got a better effect when I let it dry and then went back over it with a second coat, the first time I’ve done that on a leaf ghost.
The gold and silver surfaces are difficult to photograph, as they look different depending on how they’re lit. This one (and the photo above) shows the painting under the light I used while I was painting it.
Whereas the “official portrait” in cloudy day light from the south window has a whole different look. And honestly none of them exactly recreate the experience of seeing it in person.
The trend of Metal Earth models of places I’ve been continues (with the exception of the last one, as obviously I’ve never been on an Imperial Star Destroyer).
Tower on backwards (and didn’t want to risk irreparable damage by unbending and re-bending pins). Time spent groping around on my hands and knees with my phone flashlight in hand, searching for a tiny part I dropped. So yeah, typical Metal Earth experience.
Number 29 for me.
Because if you do red and green, you’re pretty much required to do blue.
The C7 grey chisel tip started to run dry (or have some other kind of malfunction) around midway through, so I did the rest of it using the brush tip. You can see the switch-over point in row five, column one.
And then I had a similar problem with the B06 Peacock Blue chisel tip when I first started using it. I wonder if the art gods are trying to tell me something about focusing more on the brush end of the Copics.
Several times now I’ve noted that ghosts go faster when created with Copic markers. But I hadn’t made an attempt to figure out just how long they take.
So, that long.
I’ve found that I don’t like recording my progress while I work. It makes me self-conscious, which leads to mistakes and an all-around less pleasant experience. Apparently that applies to timing my work as well. In this case I forgot to take photos of the intermediate steps. I also forgot to back the page with scrap paper, so now the next one has a few small blotches on it.
Going in, I thought I might try timing a dip pen ghost for comparison. Now I think I probably won’t.
Here’s something rare: an evening leaf ghost. I was busy this morning but had a little unoccupied time later on. Honestly it was a relaxing way to end the day. Copic ghosts are good for a few minutes of calm between other activities.
The color scheme mimics #47.
