Leaf Ghost #227

I tried some new stuff with this one. The background is wet-on-wet, with water added with a brush one row at a time. The substrate is mixed media paper, which doesn’t absorb much of the water. That made it perfect for the effect I was after here. One of the sketchbooks I experimented with yesterday drank the water so quickly that it was practically a dry surface before I could even get any paint on in.

Though this paper leaves plenty of water on the surface, it does tend to buckle a bit. The surface turns into ridges and valleys, and the valleys become lakes. This produces all kinds of fascinating effects, such as what happened in row three, column one.

The background colors are Kuretake Gansai Tambi Viridian and Malechite. Greens in this general range seem like “swimming pool” colors to me, which makes them apt for the watery look. They’re also in the same hue family as the cover of the Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook I impulse bought at May Day last week, which may be too fancy for me to ever actually draw in.

After the paper dried, I used Cobalt Blue and Cerulean Blue for the leaf. 

Leaf Ghost #226

This one might well set a record for the longest time between under-sketch and final drawing. I did the set-up digital and pencil stuff shortly after I finished the last one, but then I got caught up with work and didn’t get back to start the ink until yesterday.

Hop-Frog has the king right where he wants him, but he hasn’t put the final twist into motion yet. 

Leaf Ghost #225

I don’t know why the Copic ghosts photograph with a pinkish tint every once in awhile. Perhaps it has something to do with the paper.

Speaking of which, I’ve had Copics in high rotation (approximately one out of every three) because I’ve been doing them in their own sketchbook and the book’s nearly done. I’ll definitely finish it sometime this year, possibly even before the start of the summer.

The inks are the earth tones from #215, and the background is my beloved cool shadow / ice ocean combo.

Leaf Ghost #224

In the entry for #221 I mentioned that I’d started work with a new set of watercolors. My goal is to use all of the colors at least once before repeating any of them. I’ve already failed, as I reused Yellow Ochre for the shadow this time around.

 The other colors are Rose Beige, Natural Beige, Sap Green Deep and Sap Green Light.

So if the coming weeks and months feature a large number of watercolor ghosts, that’s why.

 

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.