Leaf Ghost #40

One more leaf ghost before the end of the year. I returned to the green-on-brown color scheme, this time in gouache.

Model – Event Horizon

Awhile back Ken bought two resin-printed models of the Event Horizon, the spaceship from the movie of the same name. Though the source was an uneven experience, the ship itself was visually fun.

He and I did the bulk of the painting on our models last summer, so it’s taken me this long to make up my mind about how to finish it. I bought some specialized colors with the intent of painting the model to match the images in the movie posters. But after careful re-examination, I decided that most of the weird colors were intended to be tricks of the light rather than the actual surface tones. 

So I added some spots for running lights, touched up a few small details, and called it done.

Leaf Ghost #39

Before I get started on the most recent leaf ghost, I want to at least mention a quick side project I completed this morning. I don’t think it merits an entry all its own, but it deserves to be noted.

Many years ago I wanted to make my own custom picture frames. I never got any farther than cutting boards down into thin strips, which of course left me with several narrow pieces of wood. It occurred to me that they might make a good stand for my Winsor & Newton inks, a theory confirmed when they turned out to be the perfect width for the small square-bottomed bottles. So I cut them to the right length, stuck them together with wood glue, and voila!

The new arrangement arrived just in time to help provide a new home for the new W&N inks I got for Christmas. The new set included violet, blue and scarlet. Combined with the purple and black I already had, they were everything I needed for Leaf Ghost #39.

This is the first time I ever crosshatched all the squares on a leaf ghost. Here I was able to make it work because I had different colors for the background and foreground, so nothing had to be hatched, left blank or spaced farther apart.

Of course that also made it more time consuming than drawing with simpler methods. But it produced the best results I've gotten with dip pens so far. The extra effort is also pleasantly meditative.

The first pass I did was violet (the darker of the two background colors). Apparently I missed a tiny drop of water on my wrist after I cleaned the nib, because I ended up with an annoying smudge (row 4 column 4).

Leaf Ghost #38

Cold, snowy day, a good excuse to stay at home and draw. I listened to my playlist of seasonal music while I worked, the drawing and the soundtrack taking almost exactly the same amount of time.

Sticking with green-on-brown color schemes, this is Tombow water-based markers: 969 chocolate, 947 burnt sienna, 245 sap green, and 195 light green.

Leaf Ghost #37

Same color combination as the last one, but this time dip pens. Winsor & Newton Brilliant Green and Peat Brown.

I think the full page coverage is an improvement over leaving the light squares of the background blank. It takes longer to do. But that’s actually a good thing, as the pen and ink ones are more meditative than practical to begin with.

Leaf Ghost #36

I’m developing some real affection for Copic markers. Three reasons:

1. They produce great results. I love how vivid the colors are.

2. They’re easy to work with. Zero prep. Zero clean-up. They produce solid coverage rapidly, allowing me to take a leaf ghost from start to finish much more swiftly than with any other tools I’m currently using. Though time isn’t of the essence, sometimes it’s nice to not spend hours on a piece.

3. The bleed-through to the other side of the page is almost as good as the picture itself.

Leaf Ghost #35

I hadn’t used gouache for a leaf ghost for awhile, and I thought it might be fun to do an all-dark background, with tones closer to each other in brightness. I’m pleased with the result and will likely take this approach again in the future.

The colors are all Holbein gouache straight out of the tube: navy, cobalt, carmine and scarlet (lamp black for the shadow).

Luca took no interest in the painting but proved to be good company nonetheless.

Metal Earth Model – Voyager

My 26th Metal Earth build. Normally I wouldn’t do two spacecraft in a row, but last week a friend and I started binge watching Star Trek movies, and the first one put me in a Voyager mood.

Voyager 1 is farther away from Earth than any other human-made object. It entered interstellar space back in 2012. And NASA is still communicating with it. They don’t expect it to stop transmitting until 2025. Not bad for something launched way back in 1977.

Leaf Ghost #34

Festive holiday colors to start the festive holiday season. Winsor & Newton Scarlet, Brilliant Green and a Deep Red shadow.