Saturday, March 20, 2010

Rhapsody in Blue (after Hirschfeld)


It's about time I painted something. I've had canvases prepared for months. And I finally took a day, brewed some coffee, and holed up in my studio. I really like this subject. I've done something along these lines a few times now, and just used an old sketch for the layout. It's based on the brilliant Fantasia 2000 sequence 'Rhapsody in Blue' designed by one of my favourite artist, Al Hirschfeld.

Take a look:

I continued on with this style I've been working on lately. This one's a little different because it's got more colours, but I wanted to see what I could do.


So here's a breakdown of the painting came to be.

1. Basic sketch. I took the photo a little late so there's some background in there, but you get the idea.

2. Underpainting. The sketch was a little busy, especially since it's not a very big painting, but the large blocks of colour tone it down a bit.

3. Filling things in a little. It's darker near the lines.

4. Loads of white paint and texture with the palette knife.

5. Putting the lines back in in blue. I decided on all blue since I was originally wanting a more monochromatic scheme than it had become.

6. Watch hockey. Bloody Leafs.

7. More lines, but this time in Payne's Gray. I love gray. Make everything seem finished with the really dark colour in there. After that, finish up with a bit of smoothing and adding white and colours or whatnot, and you get the finished product at the top of this post!

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