[Art] WIP - Black Wolf and Pines - colouring process

[moonvoice]

About just under halfway through the colouring process, applying the first layer of colour - the water colour pencils.

I've decided to show more WIP shots for the colour process than I ever have for any other picture. So have at it, and enjoy!



Original Sketch



WIP 01 - Linework of the wolf and energy lines in the piece.



WIP 02 - More delicate linework of the pinecones in the right-hand side of the piece, beginning of the landscape.



WIP 03 - Completion of the trees and basic linework in the landscape, blacking out of the darker lines in the piece.



WIP 04 - As you can see in this one, I've started fleshing out one of the pinecones on the bottom right. The fur has been done, and I've worked a little bit more on the landscape.



WIP 05 - There probably should've been another WIP picture here, but meh. More detail is added to the energy lines. Outlines are given to all the pinecones, and dots are used to create more depth and shading in the pinecones themselves. Spirals with a 0.1 fineliner are used in the background behind the trees, and pinecones. The rocks get some cross-hatching to add texture, and dots with a 0.5 fineliner are used underneath the trees themselves to create a greater illusion of density. And then of course there's texture in some of the pine trees themselves. This baby is ready for colouring now. :)



WIP 06 - Here you can see the very beginning of the application of watercolour pencils. Watercolour pencils are tricky, because how they look being applied (i.e. the lighter colours near the wolf's muzzle) are very different to how they look once you've added water (i.e. the more saturated colours everywhere else). Those colours near the wolf's muzzle are identical to the ones that have already had water applied. So using watercolour pencils is like its own alchemy, making them an awesome medium.



WIP 07 - Here I've applied the watercolour pencils to the rocks, a small section of sky, and all the grasses. I've also applied a thin layer of wash / pencils to the water.



WIP 08 - Wolf goes gothic! Here I've started applying the shadows to the wolf. The background spirals and the pinecones have been coloured. I've blocked in (but not watered in) watercolour pencils into the rest of the sky.



WIP 09 - I've darkened the water again, and blocked in the wolf's coat. This is the first layer of colour. It's predominantly greys, blues, greens and browns with almost no black.



WIP - 10 - The rest of the sky is watered in, and the trees are started. A lighter wash goes here, and then later darker greens will be added in regular pencil, which creates a greater sense of texture. The trees get a deliberately messy 'wash' with the brushes, again for texture. The pine needles around the pinecones have also been painted in.

Comments

[silere.livejournal.com]

This is amazing. thank you for sharing the process. the notes are very helpful.. i've tried a few feeble attempts at using watercolor pencils, and i always make an utter mess with them. I think i'm applying too much pencil and then when i add water it destroys everything. I'm not terribly patient with coloring, but maybe i'll try them again after looking at this.. :)

<3

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I used to loathe watercolour pencils. And they're still a very temperamental and fickle medium. But they're good for washes of colour, and once dried, you can always overlay coloured pencil to even out any problem areas, or even create new shades. For example, white and cream pencils on a 'too dark' area of watercolour pencil looks awesome. A technique I found out via mistake-making. :)