Rusty Against the World

I’m going to share with you a painting I did. This will probably be the cover for Sunnyville Stories episode 8, which won’t enter production until probably next year. This will also be one of the four pieces I display at the Anthrocon 2012 art show.

"Rusty Against the World", Ink, gouache & acrylic on paper, 10x14 in.

This piece is titled “Rusty Against the World” and was done with ink, gouache and acrylic on 10×14 inch watercolor paper.

Prints of this are available over on my DeviantArt account.

For those of you who don’t know, this painting is a parody of the cover to the 1977 album by Queen, News of the World.

As I said before, this will be for sale at the Anthrocon art show. However, while working on this painting, I snapped photos of the various stages of work. I’m sure there are those of you out there who would like to see how a painting comes together. Well, sit back and you’ll see how this came to be.

Here we have the beginnings of the work. I have my sketches on the left there of my workspace. The top sketch is the pencil rough while the lower one is the color study, done with graphite and colored pencil. I’m using a block of Aquarelle Arches brand watercolor paper. This block is glued on all four sides, which means I don’t have to tape it down like with other kinds of painting papers. This is a hot-press paper, which has a smooth surface, and the weight is 140 lb. which is strong enough not to buckle.

This is how the painting looked after I did the pencil drawing onto the paper and after laying down the green background. After doing the lines with a pencil, I decided to block in the background first. I used Liquitex brand acrylic paint, a darker tone. It’s been awhile since I’ve used paint thickly. My preference is to dilute my paints and use them like watercolor. The duller, darker background does register a few misgivings on my part, but my instincts tell me to keep going.

Next, I decided to move onto the red in the picture, the color opposite of green on the color wheel and the focus of the image. I used Holbein brand gouache for Rusty’s shirt, the blood on the robot’s finger, and the robots eyes. Alizarin crimson was used for the robot eyes while scarlet (a brighter color) was used for Rusty’s shirt and the blood. After finishing, I decided that they looked right and proceeded onward. Notice too that the aforementioned red areas (Rusty’s shirt, the bloody fingertip, and robotic eyes) form a triangle of sorts. This was planned and is integral to the composition.

My mind, body, and spirit were in complete unison during this painting process. Keep in mind that this piece is not only meant for display at the Anthrocon art show, but is also going to be for sale there. Naturally, I’m obliged to give it my best efforts…and then some.

This was from later on in the work after I had painted Rusty’s pants, inner ears, nose, and fur. I used gouache here. For Rusty’s gray fur and the robot’s gray/silver metal, I used both ready-made gray from a tube (neutral gray #3) as well as mix of black and white gouache. It took some color tests and a bit of mixing to get it right. But I did.

This photo shows the unfinished “Rusty Against the World” painting (far right) along with two other pieces to be shown at Anthrocon. At this time, I was still waiting for the paint to dry. The line art, done with black India ink, was done once the paint had completely dried. And that was that.

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