Moving ahead with the new style, after much experimentation- pen and ink under drawings with watercolor, and some bristle brush for texture. I love the purity and simplicity of pen and ink, growing up I was such a huge fan (and still am) of Alex Toth, Frank Miller, David Mazzuchelli, Klaus Janson, Bill Skienwich (still don’t know how to pronounce that name) and of the old masters like DaVinci’s pen and ink notebooks, Rembrandt, and a lot of 15th century Japanese painters, who used massive globs of ink detail with razor fine lines. Really amazing contrast.
I like the bold, geometric aspect of it all – it’s quick and gritty and expressive. Painting and coloring is relatively new to me. I’ve been drawing for about a year, as it was my 2010 New Year’s resolution. 2011 is learning how to paint. I love watercolors, though anyone will tell you it’s actually the hardest medium to master- you’re supposed to build and manipulate layers and colors, but it’s very hard to undo a mistake without ruining the delicacy of the medium. With oil, you can just cover it up or scrape it off and start over.
Watercolor is all about building up transparent layers, or, on the other extreme, it’s about laying down one or two very bold layers and capturing light, shadow and volume in single stroke. That, my friends, is hard to do!
