| BUTTINSKYS... | |
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The idea for this letter came to
me while I was at my drawing board, which means the B outline was
right at my fingertips, so I skipped the thumbnail stage and went
right to a full-sized rough. I knew what I wanted to show, the question
was, could I get it to fit inside the required shape. The thumbnail
at left doesn't begin to show all the scribbles I made on just the
one sketch. Click on the thumbnail, and you'll see what I mean. |
| Sketchbook
drawing using the same full-sized letter outline I used in the earliest
drawings. I overworked this to death trying to get things sorta
right, which accounts for the ripples evident in the thumbnail, small
as it is. As usual, I started with a blue pencil, and, once I thought
I could see which of the thousands of lines was the right one, I switched
to a graphite pencil. Of course, that still isn't ever quite right,
so then there's all this erasing and applying more pencil...so the
paper wrinkled (and has holes in it from all the erasing). Probably the biggest change from the rough is the position of the bow. The cat's left arm was moved from the "knee" to the side, so to help with the letter shape, I thought it needed a bow movement. |
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The final drawing, basically the same as all that's come before, except I started looking at photos of real cats, real violins and real bluejays. I still distort when I have to, like trying to get a smile from what is basically a grim, unfriendly, humorless-looking bird. Snow White never sang to (or with) a bluejay, I can tell you that. |
| Here
the application of water-based
dyes serves as the underpainting for the colored pencils...the same
as every single letter I've ever done in color on white paper. |
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| The colored pencil stage where most of the work is done. I had so many layers on the cat that it wouldn't take anymore. I knew I'd be adding a lot of white in the next stage if I wanted to get the lightest lights back. | |
| In
the end, I added a very thin wash of blue over the bluejays because
their white interfered with the holes cutout of the B. They blend
with the letter now. This letter had many captions: Belting Out Bach, Bach and Blues, Birdbrained Balladeers, Bach Butchered by Birdbrains, Bach Bothered by BeBop...you get the idea...and probably an upset stomach. |
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| TECHNIQUE page | |
