Leaf Ghost #73

The recent color combo continues, but beyond that this was an experimental piece. I’m still not used to working with acrylics, so I thought I’d get in some practice with them. I have a good range of reds and browns on hand, so I had plenty to choose from.

My original intent was to use the airbrush for this one, but once again the Badger Krome I bought awhile back proved too temperamental for the task (some kind of problem with the air flow this time). I’m going to try replacing it with an allegedly easier to work with model.

In the meantime, plain old brushes would have to do. I did the background with a watery mix of Valejo acrylics (Flat Red and Clear Orange). That produced an effect kinda like watercolors if they were opaque and dried instantly. The effect is pleasantly chaotic, looking vaguely like a fire.

The foreground is Valejo Black Red and Burnt Red, both colors intended for work on the skin tones of plastic models. I used them undiluted, producing much more solid coverage. The drop shadow is Black Red watered down.

The two dark reds are the closest I’ve ever come to using identical colors for both parts of the foreground. The result looks much more like a solid leaf, especially at first glance. The illusion of transparency is much more subtle, a trick I may try again in the future.

Leaf Ghost #72

The red and brown color scheme continues, this time in gouache.

I decided to start with the leaf rather than the background this time. Well, okay, I didn’t so much deliberately decide to lead off with the foreground as I began with burnt sienna (because the tube was almost empty) without remembering that it wasn’t one of the background colors.

The reverse order didn’t affect the result. The other colors are yellow ochre, carmine, scarlet and lamp black.

Leaf Ghost #71

A few things going on here. My goal at the outset was to stick with the red-back-brown-fore scheme I’ve been working with recently. But last week a friend returned some borrowed Copics, increasing the range of colors I have to work with. And one of the things I like to try with that range is monochromatic color schemes.

I managed to find a solid compromise. The lower saturations of Copic’s earth tone series tend to look red, while the more saturated colors look browner. So I stuck with what I’d been doing and what I wanted to try at the same time.

For the record, that’s E04 Lipstick Natural, E09 Burnt Sienna, E57 Light Walnut, E29 Burnt Umber and E77 Maroon.

Leaf Ghost #70

New paints. Well, new to me. These are from Yasutomo, and they’re intended for sumi-e painting. Thus they should by rights have been applied at full strength on a dry (and probably more absorbent) surface, as I did in my color tests.

In my typical style of misusing art supplies, I applied them wet on wet for the leaf ghost. This is my first time as an adult working with watercolors from a tray. It was great to be able to take just a tiny dab of paint at a time rather than filling a whole sauce cup and wasting most of it.

The result reminds me of Baskin Robbins store decor from the 1970s. Or maybe a circus poster faded with age.

Leaf Ghost #69

Continuing the red and brown theme from last time. Winsor & Newton Vermilion and Peat Brown.

I decided to try doing the drop shadow (Deep Red) with a brush rather than a nib. It was easier to work with and produced better results, so I’ll probably stick with doing it this way in the future.

Leaf Ghost #68

This is the first ghost in awhile to have a back story. Sadly, the tale this time isn’t quite so light-hearted.

Last week we lost one of the trees at the college. They went to work on it on Thursday, and by the following Tuesday all that was left was a stump. And a few twigs here and there. And some leftover leaves that – based on location and condition – were among the last the tree would ever produce.

One supplied the source for this painting.

The background is wet-on-wet, and I switched to painting on dry paper for the foreground. In a couple of points I added just a little extra brush stroke to extend the tips into the background.