Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Steps To A Goofy Painting

Hello all. I've been hard at work on Issue #1. I'm nearing completion and plan to have it out at the end of this month. I've also been working on some paintings for the "Size Matters" show that will take place this Saturday at the Nerve Gallery in Oak Park (more info towards the bottom of this post). So I thought it'd be cool if I showed a step-by-step of how I do my paintings. For this post, I used a Guardian Of The Universe.

I normally start out with a non-photo blue pencil. In this picture, I'm just using what I normally use for GSD pages, 11x14 Strathmore Bristol board. You can get a pad of it from the local art store for like $12. Once I'm done doing the pencils, it's time to paint.


I'll be honest, and some of you may know from seeing me at conventions, I don't use the crazy professional watercolor kits. Nope. I use a 24-color Crayola kit that I get from Target for $3.99. It seems to do the trick. So same method as I do with GSD. The only difference is, with GSD, I ink the pencils before I paint. I'm trying something differently with this painting (and the paintings I did for the upcoming show). So I just brush over each part. I use a Dynasty #5 brush because I like the way the tip keeps a point when wet and can curve around while brushing. I'll normally apply 2 or 3 coats, depending on how dark I want the color to be. Once the paint dries (which is what rocks about the Crayola paints, they dry extremely fast which is why I use em especially at conventions cause I can bust out a painting in rapid time), I'll finish it all up.


So I said above how I'd normally ink my pencils then paint but I wanted to go with a rough sketchy style with this painting. So after the paint dried, I used a thick #9 tip sketching pencil and darkened all the lines and did the shading and whatnot. I was a little sloppy with this one because I was just using it as an example. In total, this whole painting took me about 10 minutes to do.


So that's my painting style in a nutshell. When I do GSD, it's a little more complicated because after painting, I do ink washes and whatnot. But that's for another time.

I was very pleased to see my Galactus painting went to a good home for the Josh Medors benefit. The auction was a success and I believe they said it will pay for about a year and a half's worth of treatment for Josh. Thank you to all the artists that contributed and to all the great art collectors and fans who went and bought all of the items listed. You helped a great cause.

So this weekend, I'll be taking part in a show at The Nerve Gallery in Oak Park, IL. The show is called Size Matters and will feature artwork that is all at a finished size of only 12x12. There are a bunch of great artists that will be on display such as Ed Nowiszewski, Walter Piper, Art Baltazar and more. Definitely come out and give me a high five or something. I will have three original watercolor pieces on display (and they will be for sale for those bringing $$$). Here is a flier for the show:



I snapped some pictures of my three paintings. Not the best quality pictures, but it'll give you an idea of what I got cookin' for this show.


Grodd Want Nana!
Watercolor on Bristol board
Matted in 12x12 frame
$40



Apocalypstick
Watercolor on Bristol board
Matted in 12x12 frame
$40



A Brilliant Revelation
Watercolor on Bristol board
Matted in 12x12 frame
$40


That's all for now folks. See you Saturday!

Dave