Ignite the Jetpack!

I had a vision around this time last year (not in like a super spiritual sense, just ya know a picture in my head), of a girl with glowing hair jet-packing her way out of watery depths with golden bubbles shimmering beneath her. I immediately did a brief sketch in the journal I keep for Compulsive Creation and thought “One day, when I’m good enough I’ll try to bring this image to life with watercolor.” But this week, I was inspired by the notion that if I keep waiting to be good enough I’ll never get good enough. Ideas would turn to dust in my mind and never take material form unless I pick up the brush and TRY!

So, I’ve created my piece “Ignite the Jetpack!” It was a very challenging but never discouraging project. Below are some of the steps along the way.

Above is the very simple sketch I made over a year ago so I didn’t forget the idea.

 

Once I decided to take the project on I did a quick face study, trying to figure out how a face looks when it’s looking up. Since my drawing skills are super basic, this is always a difficult step for me in any project involving a human figure.

 

I wasn’t confident enough yet in my painting skills to just paint over faint pencil lines, so I chose to go over the pencil sketch with pen. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as my choice of coldpress paper meant that the paper had a very textured surface–not good for drawing fine straight lines. One side of the face came out a bit wonky and since I couldn’t erase, I had to march forward with a slight imperfection. It will haunt me forever… 🙂

 

Next I created a simple color study, so I could choose in advance what particular shades of blue and yellow I would use, as well as experiment with how to create a bubble. This is actually the first painting with which I took the time to do this preparation, and it was incredibly helpful. I’ll definitely do color studies as a general rule moving forward!

 

I chose to use masking fluid on the bubbles, as I wasn’t confident I could avoid washing right over them, especially since I wanted to do an initial wash of Indian ink. At this stage I was ready to paint!

 

At this point only the bubbles and a few other areas remained unpainted. Then I would do minor touch-ups.

 

Here’s the final result! I decided to go with different shades of gold metallic paint as well as light touches of blue to create the bubbles. I also used permanent white gouache to create the white edges and highlights of the bubbles.

 

I hope to paint this piece several times as my skills advance in the years ahead. This would allow me to see what’s changed with my style and skills, and continue to breathe life into a piece that is so compelling for me.