The Fairy Painting

Please visit my fairy painting blog: afairypaintingaday.blogspot.com

  A collection of all the posts: from Start to When Am I Going to Finish?

Friday, December 5, 2008
A Fairy Painting

After a pretty intense year of work (29 books!), I'm taking a break from assignments for a little while. Lots of R and R -- reading and recovering.

But also having a lovely time working on some projects of my own. This one, LONG delayed, was meant as a bat mitzvah gift for a friend of my daughter. Maybe I'll finish the picture in time for her 19th birthday!

Thought I'd show the work as it progresses.

First is the sketch I did five and a half years ago--supposed to be the fairy version of Ari, who was a voracious reader (still is.) I hope she also still likes fairies. (When they were leaving for college, she and my daughter gave each other identical copies of 'The Fairy Rebel,' a book they both adored when little girls. I just love that.)

Then I decided to turn Ari the reader into Ari the writer, now that she is a college freshman and working hard at her craft. So I gave her a fairy scroll and a fairy pen, along with new arms to hold them.

So then I did another drawing on trace to add more details in the floral background.

final rough sketch

And so here's the new sketch with all the elements. I'm gonna clean up the pencil sketch, scan it, and print onto watercolor paper for painting -- today!

tight drawing, ready to print on w/c paper

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Writing Fairy: ready to paint

This is the finished drawing, scanned in and pieced together in Photoshop (actual size is about 12 by 16 inches.) I lightened the line considerably, got rid of smudges and stray pencil marks, and then recolored the gray pencil line to a very light sepia. This is ready to print out on 140-lb. cold press watercolor paper. 

stretched (drying) on masonite

Saturday, December 13, 2008
Fairy Painting Stretched on Board

So now the drawing, printed out onto watercolor paper, is stretched on treated masonite board. When dry, the paper will lie completely flat, and will dry flat no matter how much wet paint I slosh on there. The stretched paper will probably be dry and ready to paint on in about an hour. But with two concerts to sing in today, I don't expect to get started until tomorrow. Of course, I have two concerts to attend tomorrow, so maybe Monday...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Fairy Painting Progress

underpainting begins

Finally got back to the fairy painting yesterday. After graphite outlines, laid down a few washes for the underpainting, and put in some of the local colors. Now on to more painting -- I love this part. I did this rather weak color study in Photoshop a week or so ago. I wasn't feeling patient enough with my skills in digital coloring to take it any further, but I did decide that I like the night sky above the grasses, with the glowing blossoms to give light for the writer. (The stars turned into weird ovals when I stretched the sky layer.)

Sunday, April 5, 2009
Fairy Painting Progress, Again

starting to add more color

Here' s the latest view of the work in progress. I added plant life in the foreground, and I'm working on getting the sky dark enough. Not there yet. Lots of glazing -- payne's gray (not too much) and ultramarine blue. Still not dark enough. I need to figure out values for the stuff in the foreground, which prompted the current foto. I'm gonna fool around with this image in Photoshop to see what values I value. Tra la.

Meanwhile, what I'm really working on is fixing up my website. Just reworking the layout of the pages and creating actual working navigation links, so not all that much is changing, but still, it's taking forever. (As opposed to this picture -- hah! -- which has been in progress since November. Okay, actually since 2003, but it didn't wriggle out of its sketch stage until last November.)

More painting to take place today. I hope.

painting still needs more
dramatic lights and darks

tweaks: brighter lights; darker darks

Saturday, July 31, 2010
Fairy Painting: progress update

This summer, I've actually had some time to work on this fairy painting -- now well over a year in the making (if you don't count the five years I hung onto the sketch...) It's so much larger than I usually work (about 12" by 13"), and I thought about trashing it and starting all over, in a smaller, more manageable size, but now that I've put in a few more days' work, I'm beginning to think I might be approaching the end. And it's looking pretty okay to me at this point.

Here are two versions, the second one shows the levels tweaked in Photoshop. I do want to get to an effect with the flower lamps really creating a glow in an otherwise dark scene, but I don't know if I want to take it as far as this tweaked version shows. Meanwhile, ultramarine blue glazes just go on and on and on...

I'm happy to have begun to deal with the wing detail. Don't know if I'll do any more (add a butterfly wing pattern, maybe?) or just leave well enough alone.

Sunday, April 3, 2011 
That Fairy Painting Finally Finished!

Well, here we are, a mere eight years after I first did the sketch for a painting to give to my daughter's friend (aged 13) as a Bat Mitzvah present. Now the lovely and talented Ari is not only a Bat Mitzvah (still), but at this point she's also a junior in college, and just a tad past her majority (as in, she turned 21 in January).  Gee, how time flies when you're working on a piece of art...

But the good news (I think) is that I've finally finished the painting, really and truly! I've been posting images of the work in progress over the past coupla years (I think I started the actual PAINTING of it in, what, 2008 maybe?) and so now I will post the Big Finish.

Changes between the last post of the piece-in-progress and the truly final and forever done with* result are lots of washes. Lots and lots (and LOTS) of washes. To try to get the contrast and the lighting effect I was going for. For which I was going, I mean. And I did have help, in that I got some very good and very helpful advice from One Who Shall Remain Nameless, but who, let's just say, knows a thing or two about watercolor, lots of washes, and ultramarine blue (not to mention raw umber and payne's gray.)  It was great to have This Person weigh in at the moment when I was feeling somewhat stuck, not knowing how to move forward. This Person was further kind enough not to comment on (the many) cringe-worthy drawing errors, which I'm quite sure he noticed.

[*I had cut it off the watercolor board and even scanned it when I decided that the foliage in the foreground was too light, so back I went to add more washes -- oh boy, ultramarine blue and that green mix I love -- and some more payne's gray outline. Then I realized that I simply had to Stop and declare it Finished.)

So -- back to Point the First, above -- here we are, eight years later. And I think it's an okay painting. I mean, I am in fact pretty pleased with the result (though I want you to know that I do see and can tell you Every Single Thing that is wrong with it, but only if you email me privately. What the heck, you can see 'em for yourself in any case). But it was a labor of love, and I think I learned something about painting, as I was doing this on my own time (hah!), rather than on a deadline for a client.

Next thing is to get it framed and present it to the Bat Mitzvah Girl. At this point I have my doubts as to whether or not she still has any interest in fairies, but oh well. I do hope she doesn't mind how, um, late the gift is.

Finally matted and framed! Here's the everlasting painting, all ready to go off to an exhibit, then another, and then finally to the Bar Mitzvah girl, now about to graduate from college! Phew...