Leaf Ghost #55

Reusing a color scheme and leaf type from #21, only this time with Copics. I was three or four squares into the foreground when I realized this would have been a better fit two or three weeks from now when St. Pat’s rolls around.

Leaf Ghost #54

This one you kinda have to see in person. I used Winsor & Newton Silver and Gold, and the metallic inks look different depending on the light and viewing angle. Plus metallics tend to be out of gamut for digital reproduction. And of course then there’s JPEG compression issues.

 

Technical crap aside, this was interesting to work on. The silver went on like a dream, and the gold was pretty much the exact opposite in every way. I’m definitely coming back to the former, and the latter I probably won’t use again unless maybe with a brush.

The differences between the foreground and the background were so subtle and, well, ghostly, that I decided to leave off the drop shadow this time.

Leaf Ghost #53

For this morning’s ghost I decided to give the violet range a workout. I also note that I caught my toes in the bottom of the photo. Escandalo!

I recently learned from a Skill Share lesson that Copic has its own iPhone app. Not only does it let you track which markers you have in your collection, but it also lets you save notes about what colors you used for your drawings. Fun stuff!

Leaf Ghost #52

I’ve run myself out of Titanium White. I used way too much on #8, which is why I’m out now. Fortunately I have another tube.

This time around the scheme is monochromatic green, which means that now I’m also almost out of Sap Green (which appears in its unmixed form as the lighter of the two foreground colors).

I opted to freehand this rather than spending half the morning putting down tape, peeling up tape and waiting for thorough drying. Embrace the analog, right?

Leaf Ghost #51

I admit to being ambivalent at best about the NFL, and I profoundly wish KC’s team would change its name. But to celebrate the pleasure my sister, my niece and some of my friends took in Sunday’s Super Bowl win, I selected vaguely thematic colors for #51.

Plus if the college hadn’t cancelled classes so everyone could party, I wouldn’t have had the mid-week luxury of working on a leaf ghost rather than just working.

Not that the Copic ghosts take all that much time and effort. I’ve gotten comfortable enough working with these minimal-prep-and-clean-up markers that I can go from start to finish in around an hour.

Leaf Ghost #50

I recently watched a Skill Share class on watercolor painting, and I thought it might be fun to try some of what I learned on a leaf ghost. I used a larger sheet of cold press watercolor paper rather than my usual mix media sketchbook. And I tried wet-on-wet painting, a technique I’d never tried with anything this large.

Though I’d describe the results as mixed, they produced a delightfully watercolor-y painting. Using the technique on a vertical surface proved challenging but for the most part fun.

And I should also note that this is the first time I ever made two leaf ghosts in one day.

Leaf Ghost #49

The last bottle of untested Winsor & Newton ink (or at least the last one that isn’t something metallic or otherwise specialized) was Canary Yellow. It’s very light, which left me at a loss as to how to use it in a leaf ghost. Noting that I’d considered leaving the leaf part blank on a ghost, I figured that rendering it in light ink might be a reasonable alternative. So I gave it a try.

It was a little hard to work on, because I had trouble seeing the lines I’d just made.

The effect is subtle, to be sure. But it’s definitely visible. Perhaps in the future I’ll try one that’s nothing but light ink.

Metal Earth Model – Imperial Star Destroyer

Another relatively simple build. A few more tiny bits and round pieces than the Brooklyn Bridge, but no loose connections or tricky placements. Even the eight-points-at-once step at the end was relatively stress free.

If I was inclined to rush through builds, kits like this would annoy me. It has several flat parts that sit on top of other flat parts, thus not adding much dimension and seeming kinda unnecessary. However, I like the building experience and don’t mind parts that don’t appear to have much of a function. So they’re fine with me.

Leaf Ghost #48

Another semi-figurative ghost done with Copic markers. This time around the subject is a sandy island floating in a blue ocean. Or maybe a map of same.

The blues are beautiful, though as you can see the actual Light Blue ink is considerably darker than its cap color. The Pale Sepia looks almost gold, and the Dull Ivory looks more like what I expected from the sepia. But I’ve come to find that unexpected colors are part of the process. And honestly part of the fun as well.

For what it’s worth, the colors look a lot more even when you’re actually looking at it than they appear in the photo.

Also the top of the leaf reminds me of Homer Simpson’s head. Good luck unseeing that.

Leaf Ghost #47

This was something of a make-good from #44, using the same painting techniques I failed with before. This time around I used acrylics rather than watercolors, and I thinned them down considerably. These particular paints were designed for plastic models rather than cold press board. But for the most part they went on smoothly enough.

One thing I enjoy about using masking film is that it turns every step in the process into its own work of art. I think someday I might stop halfway through and just leave the leaf part of the painting blank.

But not today.