PART 6: Slinging paint: I LOVE YOU TOO, I LOVE YOU THREE

 

The journey from this...

To this.

The story-boarding is done, necessary text changes have been made and all has been approved!

*happy dance and a martini*

Now comes the color.

                                                                                                                               

Mr. publisher says he doesn't want I Love You too, I Love You Three confused with Love You Forever -- as if anything can be confused with that, dare I say, classic.
Pfft...

Got the blues? To  diffuse the strong
sentimentality of the Love You Forever
story, I made use of a cool blue palette.

In spite of the raspberry, I took his wish seriously and decided to separate the two with a different color palette.

When I illustrated Love You Forever I was mindful that the sentiment of the story could be overwhelming if I used candy colors with a lot of pink; therefore, I used a cool palette of mainly blues. For  I Love You too, I Love You Three I decided to go with pinks, purples, and oranges applied with a lighter touch than Love You Forever.

My next debate was which medium to use: watercolor and Prismacolor pencil, thinned oils as washes with Prismacolor pencil, pastel and Prismacolor pencil, or marker, and you guessed it, Prismacolor pencil?

Arches Aquarelle at Texas Art

I decided to try something new... Oils on watercolor paper and Prismacolor pencils for detail. I transferred my storyboard sketches to Arches Watercolor rag paper by means of God's low-tech light-box, commonly known as a window. Arches rag papers are available at most art supply stores, including Texas Art. I started painting, blocking in basic shapes with Holbein oils thinned with odorless mineral spirits, and working over them with colored pencil.

Plastic egg cartons make great
mixing trays!

Unfortunately after completing three illustrations I wasn't pleased with the results. Ugh. Man that hurts!!!

There was a dull quality and the paint didn't have the lightness and transparency I wanted, and I realized I probably should have used Arches Oils Paper, made specifically for oil paints. Now the deadline was looming so I had to put on my Quick-Draw McGraw persona, stop mucking around and use a tried and true medium. Visit again soon and I'll show how I finished the illustrations for  I Love You too, I Love You Three .

Prismacolor pencils:
Texas Art Supply.

Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you'll follow me for all of my paint-slinging and hyper-typer postings.