It’s been a while since I last did much artwork, and lately I’ve been feeling itchy about wanting to do some. Now I certainly want to do some physical painting, but that involves clearing out some work space, and unfortunately, I have some editing work right now. So, instead, I opted to do some digital artwork.
This is the (or a – I don’t know if there’s more than one yet) faenyx of Arveniem. Basically my version of a phoenix. I’ll post more about the bird itself on the Arveniem blog. But here I want to talk more about the artwork itself, as artwork.
Back in elementary school, I had always enjoyed the art sessions where we took our crayons and covered our paper with masses of color, with no specific pattern to the colors, but lots of them, until the paper was all colored. Then we got out the black tempra paint, and covered over all the crayon work. Once the paint had dried, we then got to etch out line drawings. The underlying colors would shine through the black. I always loved the effect of it. But of course, it’s a messy art method. And getting a water-based paint to fully cover a wax medium is a challenge, because if the paint is too thin, it just beads up. And if it is too thick, it flakes when you come to the etching stage.
Now, working in digital for this look is so much more satisfying. Creating the scattering of color that you want under the black is much easier to achieve with various brush and pencil effects in Photoshop. Plus there is the benefit of layers. Once the color-splash layers are completed, then you can do the all black cover very easily. It’s just another layer. And to do the etching, you simply use the eraser on the black level.
I modeled the faenyx on the peacock, for the variety of fancy plumage the real bird has. When I was caretaking the retreat ranch in Oregon, there was a resident young peafowl family, and His Flashiness would often come round my trailer with his mate, Lady Flash, and their three chicks (all female). I’d always liked peacocks, but having a family as neighbors made them special for me. Hence the inspiration.
I’m rather pleased with the way this turned out, and mean to use the style in more pieces (though I don’t know what to call the style yet).
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