Amethyst Walkthrough

[Angela]

This particular image marks an experimental step in my work by way of trying out the techniques of others.  Here we have the first step, a random sketch on scrap illustration board done in a couple of hours.  I like to keep my sketches fairly loose, despite most watercolorists I've seen who add a little shading to help boost the values of the color that will go on top of the sketch.  I prefer to refine and shade things later on.  I'll have to try out that pre-shading technique in a later walkthrough.

Figures that a random sketch would turn into something groovy.

[Angela]

I've since fixed a few issues with her lanky anatomy.  Using Stephanie Pui Mun Law's awesome watercolor resource, Dreamscapes, I've utilized her stone methods and filled in the background with texture.  Don't worry about being too smooth here.  Irregularities help seal the textural illusion of marble stone.  Contrary to Pui Mun's recommendation, however, I've decided to leave the Lamp Black out of the deepest crevices in the stone since I want the attention to be on the foreground figure instead.

I've also left the figure empty of any gradient washes because she's going to be filled in with another medium instead.

Colors Used:
Ultramarine Violet
Burnt Umber

[Angela]

I've started laying in the skin on the main figure. I normally do skin, eyes, and facial features first as these particular features help to set the mood of the rest of the piece.  Faces are also my favorite part to draw and I often fail at resisting the urge to color them first.

In this instance, I've decided to experiment using theirison's heavy burnishing technique to create very smooth and supple skin tones.  First, lay down a layer of white pencil, burnish with a blending stump, then lay in your reflected light, midtones, accents, and shadows, burnishing as needed to get the shadows shaped the way you want.  I've found that you have to lay down a fairly thick coat of white on illustration board in order to get this method to work.  Seems like it might work better with a rougher texture for the pencil to grip onto.  After the pencil layers are laid down, finish it all up with an outline in copic marker.  I found I had to color over parts of the copic outline with color pencil to get it to blend better and to get the line thickness right.  Copic bleeds too much for my tastes so this technique also seems fitted better to larger pieces to suit the copic brush tip.

Palette
Prismacolor Color Pencils:
White
Peach
Light Peach
Henna
Black Grape
Black Cherry
Non-photo blue

Copic Markers:
Africano

[Angela]

I tidied up the lines a bit and detailed the jewelry. I wanted to set in the main lines with color pencil to act as a guideline for where I want to paint later with watercolor as the pencil's began to rub off.  Her wings, hair, and dress are going to be watercolor at this point.

For coloring the metal, I've pretty much abandoned Irison's technique and returned to my normal method of laying in shadows and reflected light and blending with white on top.  I find that the contrast is heavier this way.

My dragonflies are so fat and humongousXD

Metal/Jewelry Palette
Black
Non-Photo Blue
White

[Angela]

Just finishing up the last few color pencil details before the watercoloring begins.  I'm working with the theory that the wax in the color pencils will create a 'wax resist' sort of method. We'll see how it goes!

Dragonfly Palette:
Dark Umber
Sienna Brown
Deco Yellow
Carmine Red
Non-Photo Blue
Yellowed Orange
Indigo

Hanging Jewel Palette:
Non-Photo Blue
Indigo

[Angela]

Better known as the "fugley" stage of the process. Here I've started laying in the complementary colors in watercolor for the first layer of shadow.  I've also added the underlying tint of red that I want on the top part of her wings. I've implied the feathers with blocks of color rather than doing every minute detail as I want the main detail to lie in the jewels and her face to bring the focus there.  I may add a bit more detail in key locations once I've worked this through a bit more.

Watercolor Palette:
Wings:
Alizaren Crimson
Yellow Ochre
Van Dyke Brown

Drapey Skirt
Lemon Yellow

Hair
Ultramarine Violet

[Angela]

A little less fugley now.  I've gone and added layers of shading in purples and blues in the cloth and wings.  Also tinted the hair with blues and gray.  To shade, I used more pigment to help blend in the tones with the fugley underlayer of yellow.  I also had to mix the Ochre in with the purple shades to help make it all synch a bit better.  I'm still experimenting with this complementary color tone first technique so it's still a bit rough for me.

Next comes the color pencil touch ups (and a few more details) and then she should be complete!

Shawl Palette:
Cerulean Blue

Skirt:
Dioxine Violet

Hair Palette:
Payne's Grey
Pthalo Blue

Wings Palette:
Alizeran Crimson

[Angela]

And here she is! I added some key shadows in the wings, outlined a few bits here and there to make her 'pop' a bit more and generally touched her up overall.

Comment on DA here:
http://ladydove7.deviantart.com/art/Amethyst-98090225

Color Pencil Palette
Black Grape
Indigo
Non-Photo Blue
White
Black