I had been planning on doing actual watercolor washes for the background image I was commissioned to do for all these spa illustrations, so I picked up a couple of bottles of Dr.Martin's watercolors in the shades I was working with. Amazingly enough they were almost the exact same Pantone color that the client is using (I'm patting myself on the back here) so they worked out well in that aspect. I had heard of these colors since the 80s, when I read that my favorite comic books were colored using these really very concentrated inks, but have never bothered working with them until now, almost 35 years later! I always wondered how Antonio got his colors to be so vibrant, and now I know. They're intense! And idiot that I am, I left the bottles open and spilled some on myself, my floor, and my brand new shirt!
They were great for the wet-on-wet technique I had to do, with all the bleeds and fades, while maintaining intensity. I just attacked my sheets with a big ol' brush and let the colors go everywhere. After I did a few I selected some to scan, and left the others to play with. Above is a study in layering the colors using silhouettes, something that illustration master Mats Gustaffson is known for, a style which a few newer illustrators have adopted as well. I always envied how those bleeds suffused the insides of the solid silhouettes in some of these sketches, and now I know it's just a matter of letting the medium do its thing. This shit isn't anything but an experiment, however - so please don't fault me for the figures or the fact that some of the bleeds are terrible, haha!
I had been planning on doing actual watercolor washes for the background image I was commissioned to do for all these spa illustrations, so I picked up a couple of bottles of Dr.Martin's watercolors in the shades I was working with. Amazingly enough they were almost the exact same Pantone color that the client is using (I'm patting myself on the back here) so they worked out well in that aspect. I had heard of these colors since the 80s, when I read that my favorite comic books were colored using these really very concentrated inks, but have never bothered working with them until now, almost 35 years later! I always wondered how Antonio got his colors to be so vibrant, and now I know. They're intense! And idiot that I am, I left the bottles open and spilled some on myself, my floor, and my brand new shirt!
They were great for the wet-on-wet technique I had to do, with all the bleeds and fades, while maintaining intensity. I just attacked my sheets with a big ol' brush and let the colors go everywhere. After I did a few I selected some to scan, and left the others to play with. Above is a study in layering the colors using silhouettes, something that illustration master Mats Gustaffson is known for, a style which a few newer illustrators have adopted as well. I always envied how those bleeds suffused the insides of the solid silhouettes in some of these sketches, and now I know it's just a matter of letting the medium do its thing. This shit isn't anything but an experiment, however - so please don't fault me for the figures or the fact that some of the bleeds are terrible, haha!
That trio of figures is amazing! I kind of wish I were conjoined triplets so I could beg you for a copy of that.
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