Spent the day at Tsherin's new art studio working on wet shading the background. The technique is when you are blending a lighter shade into typically a darker one. With three brushes, you put down one color, then overlap with the second, then use a third flat brush to blend. The process has to take place VERY quickly since the gouache paint dries rapidly. Like under a minute sometimes! We've been having a mini heatwave in the bay area, so this is making the process even more challenging. And of course this large White Tara painting has huge spaces to fill up. Instead of the two blue shades for the sky, I also added a third light yellow shade for mist behind the lower mountains. Overall, it turned out decent. I'll probably start dry shading on top of this paint, later this week
This might be seen as cheating, but when I was a background painter for Disney, Warner bros and many others, I used an airbrush filled with water that kept the gouache damp enough to blend for much longer. Rapid drying was a constant nuisance with the Californian dry air and heat.
ReplyDeleteThe airbrush was NOT, repeat NOT, used for applying colour.
You need to find a cheap Pasche airbrush that accommodates a good capacity bottle for water.
Be sure to mix large quantities of paint ready for blending, but don't make it too runny.
This method was used by background artists on many animated films from the 1920's onwards, and it's the best way to get those lush, soft gradations of colour.