As Promised, An Art Demo
Jun. 15th, 2008 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gonzaiA ways back, I promised to post a step-by-step on how I did a commissioned portrait of SG:A's Rodney McKay. Now that I have DSL, it's possible for me to do it. Hopefully enjoy!
First, I don't watch SG:A (tried, bored me silly) and my memory isn't photographic, so I use reference photos. I searched the web until I found this one, I think on SciFi channel's site but don't hold me to that:
I liked this shot, and decided it would be best served by doing it in water-soluble graphite. I swear, sometimes choosing the medium is the hardest part! Water-soluble graphite is graphite pencils, which work much like normal pencils except that they're water-soluble and when wet act like watercolors. Because watercolors are on the whole what artists call 'unforgiving' (that is, you can't fix your mistakes or cover them up) I usually use watercolors on boards made by Ampersand Art. These have clay coatings on the board which allow for more corrections, details, etc. Using a projector, I projected the photo of Rodney onto an 8x10 piece of Ampersand's Claybord Smooth board and sketched him out with a 2B water-soluble pencil:
Next, using a 4B pencil, I sketched him out roughly, just to establish light, dark, and some areas of detail:
To a degree, I could have left him this way :) But instead I broke out the brushes and water at this point, and turned the sketch into a wash. Which I promptly forgot to scan. Oops. But after doing the wash, I went back over the picture with the pencils again, then did the wash again, resulting in this:
The same steps are repeated again: refresh the pencil, then refresh the wash. This is getting the darks dark and the shading in the areas where it belongs.
Another layer of pencil and wash and we're about ready to do the fine work.
Now I'm going back over it with all the pencils (2B, 4B and 6B) to add all the details. Because this is Claybord, I can also use knives to scrape off the clay and leave sharp highlights, or use a fiberglass brush to sand off clay and make soft highlights. I also use the brush and water to help smooth edges that don't belong. After doing all that, I sign the piece.
One step left for good ol' Rodney - scanning and computer work. I scan him into the computer on my trusty, literally dusty HP ScanJet at 600dpi. Using PhotoShop Elements, I lighten the scan, increase the contrast a bit, and use the paint function to remove all the bits, scrapes and smears around my subject. Then I change the whole thing to a grayscale file as evidenced by my teal signature turning gray (a quirk of the program won't let me make edits before grayscaling) and save it as a hi-res bitmap. This is what I use for portfolio and prints. I shrink the image down to a 72dpi jpg for the web.
This is what my friend Jeff will be receiving shortly (he commissioned the piece so he could have David Hewlett sign it at Shore Leave next month.) I'll be making a print for Hewlett, and one for me to get signed. There may well be some small, limited edition prints appearing from time to time at sci-fi cons.
That's my step-by-step explanation of how to do a water-soluble graphite pencil portrait. Most mediums don't really lend themselves to a step-by-step thing, they develop in pieces (the nose, the hair, then the neck) rather than in layers. But this medium is good for the purpose.
I liked this shot, and decided it would be best served by doing it in water-soluble graphite. I swear, sometimes choosing the medium is the hardest part! Water-soluble graphite is graphite pencils, which work much like normal pencils except that they're water-soluble and when wet act like watercolors. Because watercolors are on the whole what artists call 'unforgiving' (that is, you can't fix your mistakes or cover them up) I usually use watercolors on boards made by Ampersand Art. These have clay coatings on the board which allow for more corrections, details, etc. Using a projector, I projected the photo of Rodney onto an 8x10 piece of Ampersand's Claybord Smooth board and sketched him out with a 2B water-soluble pencil:
Next, using a 4B pencil, I sketched him out roughly, just to establish light, dark, and some areas of detail:
To a degree, I could have left him this way :) But instead I broke out the brushes and water at this point, and turned the sketch into a wash. Which I promptly forgot to scan. Oops. But after doing the wash, I went back over the picture with the pencils again, then did the wash again, resulting in this:
The same steps are repeated again: refresh the pencil, then refresh the wash. This is getting the darks dark and the shading in the areas where it belongs.
Another layer of pencil and wash and we're about ready to do the fine work.
Now I'm going back over it with all the pencils (2B, 4B and 6B) to add all the details. Because this is Claybord, I can also use knives to scrape off the clay and leave sharp highlights, or use a fiberglass brush to sand off clay and make soft highlights. I also use the brush and water to help smooth edges that don't belong. After doing all that, I sign the piece.
One step left for good ol' Rodney - scanning and computer work. I scan him into the computer on my trusty, literally dusty HP ScanJet at 600dpi. Using PhotoShop Elements, I lighten the scan, increase the contrast a bit, and use the paint function to remove all the bits, scrapes and smears around my subject. Then I change the whole thing to a grayscale file as evidenced by my teal signature turning gray (a quirk of the program won't let me make edits before grayscaling) and save it as a hi-res bitmap. This is what I use for portfolio and prints. I shrink the image down to a 72dpi jpg for the web.
This is what my friend Jeff will be receiving shortly (he commissioned the piece so he could have David Hewlett sign it at Shore Leave next month.) I'll be making a print for Hewlett, and one for me to get signed. There may well be some small, limited edition prints appearing from time to time at sci-fi cons.
That's my step-by-step explanation of how to do a water-soluble graphite pencil portrait. Most mediums don't really lend themselves to a step-by-step thing, they develop in pieces (the nose, the hair, then the neck) rather than in layers. But this medium is good for the purpose.
