Joker Pt. Part 5

Continuing the Joker's hair! This time I want to add some darker and lighter tones of hair to give a sense of volume.



There is about four different variations of green for his hair, some lighter with olive green, burnt umber, hooker's green, and naples yellow. I just keep adding strands of hair, until its like this:


I may add more hair later on, depending on what I feel about the piece when its closer to completion.

That's about it today, sorry its so short. I need to stop at a store tomorrow to pick up a better lamp for painting. I had some people make several suggestions, I'll see what I can find.

Joker Painting Tutorial part 4

Now its time to start the hair. I'm using a Hooker's Green for the base coat, and I fill the whole block of hair:


Now I'm going to use a smaller brush, like one I might ink with. Whenever my brush strokes have to be smaller and more precise, I make sure my small brush is pretty damp feeling before dipping into the paint. I think it helps the bristles move and flow better when I make my strokes. I'm just starting by adding some locks of hair with a mix of Hooker's Green and Naples Yellow. I like using this in the mix for a lighter green instead of using titanium white because it looks a much more vibrant:


Now that my layer of light hair is done, I'm going to mix less yellow into my hooker green and make slightly different shaded locks. I'll make about three layers eventually with different shades of green to make up The Joker's wild hair:


That's about it for today. Its been pretty difficult for me to paint recently because the sun is setting sooner and I work late in the evening. I have a few lamps at the easel, but its not enough quality for me to work with. Regular bulbs give an ugly tone to most of my colors. I also have a day lamp which is good, but its a reading lamp, so I'm not getting enough light over my whole canvas. I just need to buy a good lamp for painting with, if you have one you use for painting, let me know!

Joker Tutorial part 3

Continuing with my tutorial on painting, I'm going to start talking about dry-brushing. Dry brushing is a technique where you load the brush with just a little amount of paint, and even brush it until its 'dry', meaning there is almost no paint coming off the brush. Once you get the brush ready, you lightly brush your painting, and only the impasto part of the painting that sticks out will get painted on. This will give the piece an even more raised effect.



I mixed my Payne's Gray with just a little zinc white, and prepared my brush for drybrushing. I painted around, and I especially painted around the Joker to give him a sort of haloed glow around him. After I highlighted with the drybrush, I mixed more zinc white to make a whiter light blue, and continued the process. I did this about three times to give a nice gradient of brightness.


This is the first drybrushing layer. You can see that there isn't too much of a difference between the original Payne's gray background and the lighter blue. I want each layer to be a subtle change.


This is about three or four coats of drybrushing , each getting brighter and brighter.



Now that I'm done, I peeled away the frisket of The Joker, leaving his silhouette. See how the frisket protected the Joker illustration below? Actually, if you look closely, you can see I had only one spot of bleeding, and that was a small spot on The Joker's nose, but I can paint over that just fine. Now its time to paint The Joker!

That's it for tonight, I hope someone out there is learning something from this tutorial!

Painting Tutorial Continued

I worked a bit more on my Joker painting and took some more photos. Remember, this is all my rough thoughts, I'll be much more thorough when I actually compile it into a proper tutorial. I believe I'm going to make this into a website and a DeviantArt tutorial.

This segment of the tutorial will be on my impasto technique, its nothing fancy, but good to use. If you look at my Grim painting or my Automaton of Mars painting, you can see the impasto technique being used. I got the idea originally from Brom, no secrets there. My first painting I actually ever completed was Grim, and it is deeply rooted in Brom's work. I think I have separated myself from that quite a bit though. That's what I believe artists do, they see something they like, they imitate it for study, take what they want from it, and build their personal style.


Okay, first up is the Impasto medium. Actually the brand I use is called Molding Paste from Golden's gel mediums. The photo I found here says Light Molding Paste, but I prefer the regular molding paste, its a bit heavier, more sculpting, and feels a bit tougher and longer lasting. I think it takes longer to dry as well, which in my book can be both a plus and minus.



This stuff is kind of like mud. I use a palette knife and just go wild, making marks, slashes, splatters, whatever. I'll impress the knife into a bunch of medium on the canvas then pull up and down a few times to get a real textured look.


I'm applying amounts of the paste all over the areas of the background for this piece. I want the background to look something like a stone wall, lots of texture. Once i get the paste where I want, then I start messing it up.


This is where I press down with the knife and lift repeatedly to make a messy texture.


I'm trying to get it everywhere except on The Joker. I want it to look like a maniacal prison cell in the end.


Okay, I have the paste how I like it for right now. One note, I used to paint flat on a table when I started painting a few years ago, before I built my easel. Yes, I said I built my easel. I like to build whatever I can, so its to my specifications, and generally much cheaper. I also built my light box for transferring sketches onto bristol board. Anyway, when I painted flat on a table, the impasto technique would actually start going slightly flat as it dried due to gravity! Now that my canvas is standing straight up, depending on how thick it is, it has the potential to run down. I'm going to let this dry, its not too thick for me to worry too much. But when its dry, I'll take another photo, and then possibly add some more paste if need be.

That's all I have for now, hopefully tonight I'll get some more work done, which means more photos and blogging. Tonight I am going to see the new Star Wars movie with an old high school buddy whom I haven't seen in almost ten years.


*Update** 9:35pm

Okay, so I'm back from the movie and I worked some more on the painting. BTW, the Star Wars movie was pretty good. I didn't like that the droids were really stupid though.


Okay, one of my tools I use is frisket. Frisket is generally an airbrush artist's tool, that's actually where I learned to use this first. Frisket is like a giant clear sticker than you can put over your painting, then cut out shapes with an exacto blade and paint over it. Once you're done, you can peel it back up and the covered area is protected from your paint job.
I'm going to use the frisket to protect The Joker, while I get wild and paint the background. I want the background to have some gradients and drybrushing effects, so as I wildly paint, The Joker will be safe behind the frisket.



I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but I cut a square piece of frisket around The Joker. Now its time to use the exacto blade to carefully cut the silhouette of The Joker.


Here, I have The Joker cut out, and ready to paint.


I am using Paynes Gray here to start a base coat of the background. I want the background to be a very dark blue with lighter blue highlights. Paynes Gray works well for this because its almost black. One thing I'll have to remember is that when this dries, I'll have to rotate it and be sure to get the bottom of the canvas completely covered with paint as well.
A note about painting over frisket. Always try to paint going away from the frisket, not towards the frisket. If you paint towards the frisket, you potentially can lift up the frisket and accidentally paint into your covered area. If you paint going away from your frisket, you'll keep pressing the edge of the frisket down, ensuring a safe bond to the canvas.

How I paint, the beginning of a tutorial

I think Im going to make a tutorial. I'm taking photos and scans of each step so far with my Joker illustration. I haven't seen too many traditional acrylic painting tutorials here, or anywhere, perhaps it will be useful for someone.

I kind of made a quick rundown so far:


My first sketch of what I wanted Joker to look like


First sketches to figure out the pose. didnt like this, because it was
to directly forward, very boring and undynamic. I drew a little sketch
below to figure it out.


Another idea, this is going into a better direction.


My first sketch.. its okay, but it needs more arch in his back and a
bit more madness.


This is now really getting somewhere. but its drawn in my pocket
sketchbook, and needs to be redrawn much larger to make better
details.


Larger paper, very early stage


Final sketch, ready to project with my opaque projector, onto a canvas.


This is my opaque projector. It takes 4"x4" illustrations, so I scan
my final illustration, and reprint it at a size that will fit. Then I
fit it inside and project it.



This is in the process of the projection. Note, I didn't take a photo
of my Joker painting while I was transferring it with my opaque
projector, so that's why the two other photos don't match. I was going
to do this some time ago with my St Jerome painting, but then set it
aside to work one some more imperative things.



Now that it is aligned to the correct size and focused, I can sketch it over. The reason I do this process, rather than just freehanding onto the canvas is because I get very nervous with a giant blank canvas and lose direction, a sort of artist block. I feel I can be much more creative and loose onto sketchpaper without worrying about screwing up a big canvas.


Now its on the canvas, ready to paint. The canvas I believe is 18"x24"

I'll keep taking photos, and writing. I want it to be pretty thorough so people can maybe learn something, or even teach me a few tricks to my process of painting.

Joker continued

Ive been drawing, but mostly things I don't really care to share yet... I've been trying to draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they are kind of hard to draw, the shell makes it hard for me to pose them in a dynamic way. I'll keep going at it, been wanting to draw a Ninja Turtle for some time. But I have drawn more to the Joker illustration. I actually just redrew it on canvas to prepare to paint.

Castro Monday?!

So, today I drew Fidel Castro... No idea why, but I did. So that's him below. By the way, my personal opinion is that he's dead, and the Cuban Government is covering it up. Dude has to be dead, he's been sick and old for so long.




Don't know what else to say, so this is a short blog today?

Joker, possibly a painting?

First up, daily sketch. I've actually been drawing and redrawing this. I think I have three tiny sketches of this in my little sketchbook for work, if you look at the previous posts, then you can see an older rough of this:



So what do you think? Is the pose decent? Face decent? different angle? bigger teeth? smaller head? anything? I really want this to look nice, I've never really drawn or painted fanart before, so its important to me to have this look good. Joker has always been laughable to me because I never read how macabre and sadistic he is. To be honest I haven't read much Batman until a month back when I read Gotham by Gaslight and The Killing Joke. The new film really opened my eyes to appreciating Joker so much more. Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson just don't have the screen presence like Heath Ledger.


So, my brother is better. Thanks all of your for your kind words, they meant a lot to me. I guess his heart naturally went back into normal rhythm, it was the surgery that threw it into a-fib for awhile.
Let's see. I've been thinking about things to write about, and now I'm drawing a blank. Oh yes, I wanted to mention that I noticed a trend in my favorite comics. Some examples off the top of my head that I have been currently reading: New X-men, Young Avengers, Runaways, Blue Beetle, New Avengers, Scott Pilgrim. What's the thread between these? A: Children. I love it when young kids get super powers and have to deal with extreme situations. It was my dream to have a super power a kid, and I suppose I'm living that dream through these comics. B: I love team books. It's more bang for your buck. New Avengers made me want to have an comicgasm because it has Spider-man, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, plus more. Holy shit what a line up, favorite characters all around, in one comic.

So, that's about it for the moment. I've been terribly busy and frustrated, so my daily sketching has minimalized for a little bit, but honestly I am trying to keep a decent update.

New Painting

I've been wanting to get back into my painting, so here's what I'm working on at the moment. I haven't done a traditional portrait in some time, we'll have to see how that works out:



Besides the painting, I've been pretty lazy this weekend. I wanted to work more on my comic, but I just can't get in the mood to do serious work.
This week I also have to see a financial aid adviser, to see if I can take Spanish. I'd love to take it from the college on top of what I am doing, but they might not let me because I already fulfilled my language requirements. We will see, once I know that, I can plan out my schedule a bit easier. I'd like to take Spanish and Health this quarter. Something interesting and something necessary. Taking a daily Spanish class would really help my learning curve, self study and once to twice a week private lessons isn't enough in my opinion. I'd like to accelerate at a faster rate, which means daily doses of Español. I never hear enough Spanish in the day. I watch Telemundo when I can, and I listen to a few Spanish radio shows, but that's just little bits, interaction would be preferred.

The seam at the crotch of my pants tore open at work today

Yeah, so my crotch tore open at work today. I had to borrow some OR scrubs and finish the last quarter of the day mismatched. I thought it was pretty funny, but I try to not take things too seriously.

So, I'm trying to get some sketches ready for potential paintings. I want to do the battle maiden, the knight and witch, and Joker. So in light of that, I have been working up the Knight and Witch illustration:


This is what Ive been doing in my tiny sketchbook. I like the positioning of the characters, but I hate the knight's face, and his hand looks like he's grabbing for some boob. I also need to find a cat reference photo, because I also obviously can't draw cats! Sorry, never owned one or paid enough attention.


and this is my idea for a painting. I was thinking it would be awesome to have crazed Joker staring off at us in a straight jacket. Another thing I can't draw is straight jackets. I haven't really seen one, so I need to find another reference for that.

What I need to do now is photocopy my tiny sketches onto bigger paper, and redraw them onto a new sheet and clean and detail them. a wallet sized sketchbook doesn't cut it for details.

I'll hopefully have comic come art up soon, all this drawing has been hopefully prepping me to draw some pages for the comic. I just felt I was rusty before taking on my comic. The (pseudo) daily sketches is helping a lot. Its getting me in rhythm, and more in practice.

Also, the spanish blog will be here soon as well. I'll probably write it up tomorrow. I'll also have a translation below, so those that don't speak the Español can still follow along, and those that do read the language can correct me!

A few daily sketches!

Okay, needed to make up for some missing days :D Actually, I was so tired this morning, I accidently left for work an hour and a half early! So I sat in the cafe, drawing and listening to podcasts.


A witch, I'm working on an idea for another painting of a witch and a templar knight.


Brother Diego :D


A girl


Lastly, this is very rough, but this is the idea for my painting of the knight and the witch. I'll need to work on this on a larger sheet of paper so I can work on details, and add much more. I think the background will be in a cometary. Very bizarre, I know.

Approved & Daily Sketch

First, the daily sketch. I was going to upload this yesterday but never got around to it, so today I added a bit more details to it at work.

I'm thinking of working this on a larger paper, flesh it out more, and painting it in acrylic. Its very Frazetta themed, so I'll probably start sorting through his works for a color scheme if I decide to take this to completion. One thing I need to do is give her more hips, and figure out a top, because I don't think Valkyrie Battle Maidens were just topless, though that would be a great distraction against male enemies.


Okay, now onto my excitement for the day. I was approved for financial aid, which means I will be attending college again in the Fall! I'll be taking Spanish in the mornings (on top of the private lessons I already do, I really want to be fully bilingual), and I'm on a waiting list to join Astronomy, which will be an online class. That will be ten credits, and I'm excited for both!
Oh, I'm also thinking I'll be starting a couple blog entries a week all in Spanish. I don't get to practice my Spanish as often as I'd like, but I post blogs at least 4 times a week (should be daily since I am doing "daily" sketches), so I could turn this into an exercise in language. Don't worry non Spanish speaking friends, I'll post in English as well. For those that do speak Spanish, please make suggestions, or point out my bad grammar!