A Gut Feeling

 

"A Gut Feeling"

New finished illustration piece for Kevin Hopson's new book of the same name.

Prelim drawing charcoal on toned paper 11"x17" 

I usually draw 3 but, Kevin approved the first sketch so on to paint.

 

16" x 20" Masonite prep, I coat the board front and back with polyurethane
 to seal the board twice on each side. Then 3 coats of yellow acrylic on the front sanded in between layers.

 

Burnt umber underpainting in oil. 

A step not shown here is the transfer of the drawing with carbon paper.

Underpainting step seals the drawing and and starts to establish values.

 

First block in of oil color. Sets the mood of the piece and I pick colors at this stage, I debated green for the tentacles for a long time then went with the blue, green seemed too obvious.

Render Render Render, no short cut or trick to painting its just hours and hours of rendering

Final Painting 

all approved by the client.

Now off to be framed and wait for the book to come out.

Can't wait to see how it looks in print.

Kevin was amazing during the whole process and a pleasure to work with.

He loved the first sketch which made my job pretty easy.

I'll post photos of thebook when it comes out.

On to the next painting.