These are the first few steps preliminary to painting -
In answer to Kim, yes, after the earliest rough stages, I do all the subsequent drawings on tracing paper (utilizing lots of masking tape and layers and layers). Here's the last two versions of it before scanning. 
After scanning, I print out greatly reduced versions to do value and color comps - as many versions as I need to feel happy about it. It saves me time in the long run if I resolve these issues at this stage rather than hit-and-miss in process.
I've enlarged the drawing and printed it out on a couple different varieties of watercolor paper -hot press and cold press - so that I can do a bit of experimentation. I want to do one version in my normal watercolor technique, another watercolor one a la Edmund Dulac, and the other one with oil glazes.
First step in experiment - the initial wash of Chinese white (you can see the relative thickness of the paint layer on the right one) for painting in a Dulac-ish sort of way. More layers tomorrow.
15 Comments on Baba Yaga WIP - initial steps, last added: 4/18/2009
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very cool! i'm excited to see your progress steps! how large are the w/c sheets? what kind of printer are you using? can't wait to see you get some color on her!
Thanks so much for sharing this process with us! I'm envious of you having a decent printer that takes lovely paper, mine's very particular that I only use cheap thin A4!x
I will be watching this process with much interest, Tara. Is there somewhere one can read about Dulac's technique? Is this the process Rebecca Guay uses?
Have you ever used the Epson's Velvet watercolor paper for printing? How will you prepare your paper for the oil washes? Just a few questions...sorry.
Love seeing your process, Tara! Interested in the other questions,too. Thank you for sharing. :-)
thank you for posting these steps :) I was curious if you used tracing paper. Do you have problems with it tearing?
I love progress photos! :) Thanks for sharing, and I am amazed that you have the patience to paint the same painting 3 different ways. I'm all about plunging forward, though I'll bet I make up for it in frustration afterward.
Christine - I'm using an Epson R1900 printer which will print up to 13x19 sized paper - so therefore I size these larger pieces accordingly. :-) It is grumpy about 140 lb paper, but if it is cut perfectly square it will feed.
Kim - I would *love* to find more info on Dulac's painting. I'm taking Rebecca's word for it, and copying her and samples of his paintings spread before me as I go.
The Epson paper is not so great for working on. It's very thin. The velvet fine art paper has a terrible surface for actual paint, and the fine-art watercolor paper does OK with paint, but does not stretch and warps a lot.
For the oil washes, I will seal it first with Galkyd. I hope to post the entire process for this.
Jennifer Rose - I don't have any issues with tearing tracing paper. I mostly use a lovely, ultra-translucent 25 lb variety made by Canson. It takes graphite really well and erases completely. I love working on it.
thank you for your answer :D
Thanks Tara, Wendy Edelsen emailed me about her negative experience with Epson's Velvet paper too. I'll be checking back so keep painting and sharing. ;~}
So interesting seeing how you work, thanks for sharing :)
It's so nice to see the process Tara! I really like this drawing and can't wait to see the finished colors.
Thanks for sharing your process. It's very helpful. Please keep posting as you go along. It's so interesting...all the steps.
Also, I have a questions... I scanned one of my sketches like you, cleaned it up a little with Picnic, but then when I printed it, it left a cast on the white area and effected my watercolor when I painted it. So even skin had something on it. Did you ever have this trouble? I'm curious..
Thanks for sharing!
Diana,
I've had that problem as well and ended up switching to a less translucent tracing paper so I could see if I was leaving graphite smudges, and also increased the brightness and contrast slightly in Photoshop to take care of any last pigmentation that was unintentional.
It is a little bit trial and error for me because my scanner is even more sensitive than my computer monitor so I can't always see subtle discoloration until I print it.