Work continues on ‘The Intrepid Explorer’. If you missed the previous post, see that one for all my ‘shading’ work. Now on goes the colour. This is gouache, a water-based paint, and most of it I will be washing off in a minute, which is handy, as I am temporarily obliterating my careful painting, bit by bit:
Usually I would fill in with the base background colour at this stage but I feel there should be an impression of fireworks in the background. I resorted to a random splattering of paint… not my usual thing, but it will probably come out ok in the end! I started with a toothbrush, and a ruler, flicking white paint over… er… everything actually. This, as I say, is not in my usual armoury of techniques, and it is hard to aim with a flicky toothbrush. Finally some paint got in the right place:
The big blobs were a bit too round, so I also flicked some water on them to spread the edges in what I hope will be a nice random way. Next, I had to wait a while to let everything dry completely, giving me the opportunity to shut down the computer and give it a bit of a clean. oops.
And for the background. Now it all resembles a very bad painting of stonehenge, but never fear….
…because straight after this dried I took the painting upstairs and gave it its hosing down in the bath, with the shower thingy and a soft brush, washing off most of the paint. This is what I have now:
…phew… starting to look like something. Still a lot more painting to go…. I shall be back.
By the way, I hope you like the new blog format. I visited Six Glasses of Water‘s blog, and thought the home page layout was a much better way to show what is mostly a diary of paintings, so I found something similar. Hmm. Maybe I’m still thinking I like her theme even more, but it didn’t seem to suit my images… they are not as consistent in colour and weight, I think that’s why this slightly nerdier theme worked. Anyway, I hope you like it, I think I do 😀
Art by Nancy Farmer 
—– Cool, Thanks
Original Message —– From: Nancy Farmer’s artwork To: george@etcorngods.com Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2012 3:06 PM Subject: [New post] The Intrepid Explorer: part 2
Nancy Farmer posted: “Work continues on ‘The Intrepid Explorer’. If you missed the previous post, see that one for all my ‘shading’ work. Now on goes the colour. This is gouache, a water-based paint, and most of it I will be washing off in a minute, which is handy, as I am tem”
Thanks George!
It’s almost done. So exciting! Even after all this time, I’m still amazed by your art – both, the final product, obviously, and the process, itself. Beautiful and fascinating. I’m still itching to give it a try; if for no other reason than to appreciate your skill and talent all the more. 😉 But enough about me…. LOL
Thanks Mgon… sometime i will put up real simple step-by-step parts of the process so people can properly see how I’m doing it!
Lovely to see the different stages developing. So interesting to see the techniques of other artists 🙂
Thanks Rosie!
Yes, i agree with the others. I love the subject of your painting though, i am curious what it will be like when its finished. I wish to be able to try this out myself too. unfortunately i am at the other end of the world, so not so easy and still in the middle of a lot of exploring with what i do now. But when the opportunity arises, i hope to try this! Good luck with the final phase!
Thanks Ardy… no reason why being the other side of the world should stop you having a go, though. The paints that personally use are fairly expensive, but water-based paints of this kind are also among some of the cheapest sorts. Sometime this blog needs some proper step-by-step notes, when I have the time.