Robot Step-By-Step

Hey again, fellow travellers. This post is a step-by-step of the process I used to do my Robot with Lady painting.

 I'm posting this because I would like it - I like step-by-step articles on just about anything, because I always like to see processes as they happen, and I figure, write what you love. So here goes:


Step One: Transferring the sketch.
(Doing the sketch I'm treating like a whole other process)

 So this is the start of me transferring the original drawing to the painting surface. I drew the image directly onto tracing paper, turned it over and traced the lines with a soft pencil (e.g.4B). What you see is the result of putting the soft-pencil side of the tracing paper onto the painting surface, and running over the lines with a hard pencil (e.g. 2H) or a ballpoint pen (I used the pen).
     The surface I'm using here is a sheet of hardboard cut to about A4, and coated with a couple of layers of gesso, applied with a housebrush. I like the housebrush, because it gives a grain to the surface that you can really get some paint in (I'll later experiment with applying the gesso with just a flat edge, so that it goes on smooth).

More after the jump.




Step Two: Tidying the transfer up


Transfers from tracing paper don't always come out perfectly, so it's very worth taking some time to put the detail back in. It's also a good time to change things a little, as you'll see in the close up.
 Original sketch on the left, transferred underdrawing on the right. Note the the background, extra studs and the changed symbol on the chestplate

Step Three: The first layers of paint

 After neatening up the lines, I painted in the midground and foreground with Burnt Sienna, making sure that the midground was lighter than the foregrounds (representing atmospheric perspective). I probably should have done the sky first, but to be honest I doesn't really matter because these are just light colour-establishing layers

 I was swithering as to whether or not to go with a yellow sky, going for a incredibly bright painting, but in the end I went for purple, pretty much just on a whim.

 And here we establish the robot's body tone.

 And here we establish the colours of all the rest of the pieces. You can see that I've been treating the areas of the painting as seperate, (I realise it's a bit like painting within the lines), which is a bit of an experiment, as I haven't painted like this with acrylics before.

And here I've filled in the sky, trying to get it darker towards the top, and lighter towards the bottom (i.e near the horizon). If, on a sunny day, you look up at a clear blue sky, you'll see that it's lighter near the horizon and darker high up. I think that's to do with land and sea exuding water vapour.


That's about as much as I actually do to the sky for this painting, and more to come in the next installment!