Behind the Scenes: A Retrospective

After showing a friend some old WIPs and unfinished pieces the other day, I thought it might be interesting to share some of those things with you all - both current supporters and other curious parties - so you can get a further look into how I do what I do! So here is a selection of bits and pieces from the last few years of the stages of work you don't often see.

This photo from late spring 2014 show the ink stages of four pieces. Clockwise from the top left, these are "Two for Tea," "Contemplating Tea," "Plucking a Tune," and "Daffodils." Two for Tea was inked in a very specific red-brown color I could not find in pens, so the entire thing was instead inked with a small brush. "Contemplating Tea" was never finished; it was partially colored and has sat on my bookshelf in that state to this day.

The finished "Two for Tea," below, was well-received and found a home at a summer art show. I would really love to do more full scenes like it when time allows.

I have a little more documentation for a more recent piece, "The Little Prince," from late 2015. The finished piece is another ink and watercolor work with strong, vibrant reds that stand out against the character's natural colors. The clothing design followed the general look of "Lady Adelaide":

But the piece had humble beginnings in a very scribbly doodle done between other projects after I'd seen an inspiring photo of a buff-tip moth. This is all I started from:

I wasn't able to return to it for a while. When I did, I'd decided a forward lean would give the prince a shy, shrinking look, and I added a scepter clutched close to his body to emphasize it. I drew his ruff as an upward-swooping "hairstyle" to evoke the shape of the real species and pushed this further with the cape's collar. Eventually, the final sketch was ready.

Let's go back to 2014 for one more slightly different piece. "Moon Meditations", a 12x12" work in opaque black watercolor on cold press, was originally plotted digitally. This saved me a lot of headache dealing with the complexity.

Once I got the pencils onto the paper, I began inking by tracing around each moth, then filling in the remaining space. The opaque watercolor offered a dense, textured black darker than the inks I'd been using previously - doing this in white on black paper might seem like the more sensible approach, but it wouldn't have had the effect I wanted. Here are a few snapshots from the progress over the course of a total of 21 hours of work:

After the ink was finished, I applied silver leaf to the moons to complete the piece, resulting in one of my favorite pieces I've ever made. I have actually seen it hanging in the home of its now owner and am happy to know it is displayed and appreciated.

I hope to be able to share more works like these with you in the near future. I may be able to dig up more progress and process for past works as well. Thank you to all my supporters who are making more pieces like these possible. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments you might have! There will be more updates just for Patrons soon! :D