Random thoughts and bits of life of a coffee loving artist

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

WiP: Family Zodiacs (part 1)


Since I started my blog about a month ago, I have been asked by several of my friends if I could go ahead and include WiPs (works in progress) so that they could follow along with what I'm working on and get a sense of the steps I do. Well I figure why not and have decided to show what I'm currently doing for a client.

The story behind the piece is that a couple who I've been friends with since high school came to me while the wife was pregnant and commissioned a painting to done as a gift to the baby they were expecting this month. In it they wanted a woman with the symbol of Virgo on her arm being surrounded by a pair of koi that had the symbol of Piscies on their heads. I was happy to accept the project and agreed to take on their request. As it turns out, their son was born several months premature and unfortunately passed away due to an illness which his tiny body was unable to battle it. I had only gotten as far as the rough draft designs when I found out the news and found myself unable to approach them with the question of if they had wished me to continue with the project. I held back asking for several months until recently when March was getting closer. I didn't want them to think that I was asking because of the money and I knew that if they said yes, it would become my first memorial piece I've done to celebrate a tiny life that during his short time on earth had made such a large impact. Speaking with my friends, I was surprised that yes they did want me to move forward on the project. Not only did they want me to continue, but they wished me to add an extra element: for the woman to be holding a scorpian. I felt honored and wanted to make them proud so asked if I could add my own element to the piece which was to have the constilations of Virgo, Piscies and Scorpio in the painting as well. My friend gave me the go ahead and I started work on the final painting.

As you can see, I'm barely to the halfway point of this project but I'm really happy with the progress and wanted to share how it's looking. I'll share more at a later time to show how it's coming along.

The original concept drawing (left) and the altered version (right) for the project. 

Line art for the painting (which I erased I'm not sure how many times to get the lines to look right).

Used masking fluid on constellations to leave them white while painting. Base color of background painted in. 

Painting in base colors for the subject matters. 

Basic secondary colors added to base colors to start getting an idea of shading. 

Start working on basic shading for piece. 


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