Post #314618 by little lost tiki on Sun, Jun 24, 2007 11:02 AM

Da Moon. I actually touched it up with some pearlescent tinting. In some light it looks cool and has a nifty shimmer to it, it other it looks really clunky silver paint. Not sure If I'll leave it. It may get in the way when it's scanned to become a print. Anyone had any experience with pearlescent goo?

Hey Brad!
Pearlescents,metallics,puff paint,unsmooth paint texture on the canvas-they are all the enemies of fine art prints! Couldn't even tell you how many hours and $$$ went into cleaning off the glare hi-lights and how the shines actually affected the areas of color around it! Now, when i do a print,you shoot it first-then add all the fangdoodles and shiny stuff after you have it recorded.
the cool thing is that you can hand embellish the print to mimic the metallic/pearl/whatever you add to it and it makes the print special! Hope that helps....

You can see it the detail that I left a tad of the underpainting on the clouds to show through. Good? Could I have just applied a little burnt umber to a regular painting to get much the same effect? Oh well, it's a learning process as they say.

There's a consistency and glow you get with the underpainting that is hard to achieve...Brueghel rocked the underpainting.you can even see his sketch lines here and there/Bosch too! It is a learning process and you have to try new stuff/new mediums/new style...That's why a sketchbook and a block of good watercolor paper are essential/do ink studies/try different ways of mixing mediums/flow improvers/etc. But while you're doing that,don't be afraid to try a different way of lighting,a different way to draw a cloud or a figure...What i'm saying to you buddy is PLAY!!!! PLAYPLAYPLAY! Be like a kid and do things that would make the art scholars cringe...and then amaze them by pulling it off!

You know, I'm still not sure about this whole underpainting thing. Here I am trying to build up color washes, but it feels more like I'm just overpainting in color. Perhaps I'm not ready for color washes and layers. Next painting I may not go this route, and go back to direct color. Would be faster!

Well it seems as if you have mastered this technique pretty well...actually very well! If you r next painting is a direct color-really pay attention and see what results you like best for certain things....ie: for skin tones-you could underpaint to give it that glow-but the dense palms in the background could be direct color! I think whatever you do,it has the Brad Magic Touch and will shine far above and beyond! Keep rockin and don't be impatient!