Monday, April 22, 2013

A book cover

Sorry it has been a while since I posted....busy with life and painting:)  I just finished my next project at the Academy, a book cover.  I was allowed to choose a subject from a bunch of topics an robots was one of them....so I chose to do a cover for the Iron Giant.  Now I have never seen an Iron Giant book, but I'm sure they could make one and when they do I will be ready to provide them cover art:)

So I thought you might enjoy seeing the whole process start to finish....
First are the rough thumnail ideas...




After the thumbnails and feedback from my professor I did a value study of the chosen thumbnail that I would move forward with.  My professor picked the one I liked the best, so I was glad!


Then it was on to color studies.  I did more than I am posting....thought I'd edit for just the best.




And then finally the finished art.  This is a mixed media painting on cold press illustration board.  I start with a watercolor lay-in of just the colors and then put an oil wash over top .  I pull back the wash in places I want it to do lighter and add oil paint in places I want it to do darker.  I add details with prisma color pencils and pen and ink.  It took about 20 hours to complete the finished paintings, but I was happy with the results.  Enjoy!

I need to get a better camera to take better pictures of my art with.  This one is a little bit brighter than it appears in person.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the process.
Till next time.