Polo Bear

24x36 canvas two coats of Liquitex Unbleached Titanium

Drawing in the black and white outlines

All of the outlines are done

Filling in each line with a Liquitex black paint marker 

Black lines have been painted in using Liquitex tube paint

Painting in the white fill color

Starting to outline the blue are with another paint marker

It will need one more coat of white and blue and the edges touched up.

Morrissey Painting

I created this Morrissey painting based off the photo, below, of the sulking lead singer of The Smiths. It's 2" x 3" and made with acrylic paint.

Made for my friend Denise, author of Morrissey FAQ: All That's Left To Know About This Charming Man. Get it here on Amazon.com.

Bad Boss Painting

I've been doing more paintings lately and trying to stick to the 24" x 36" canvas size. Documenting the process is important, so I've been doing that lately.

I'm not scared of painting over existing color(s) anymore and found that painting the entire canvas first, in this case Liquitex Unbleached Titanium, helps the painting look better in the long run. I gave this canvas about four coats.

Initial black and white outlines of the illustration using Liquitex acrylic paint markers on top of four coats of Unbleached Titanium.

The black outlines have been expanded inward 1/2" inch with a thin tip Liquitex Carbon Black acrylic paint marker, then filled in the rest of the way with brushed on Mars Black paint. Carbon Black, by the way, is more like an ink than a thick bodied paint, so I always end up getting my lines set up with the marker, then carefully going over those lines later with Mars Black brush paint. Since the Mars Black went on over top of another color, it required two coats for really nice coverage.

The white outlines have been thickened on each side with a Liquitex white acrylic paint marker, then filled in with brushed on Titanium White paint. Six months ago I would have stopped here and called the painting done. Also, I would not have used white paint for the outline, it would have remained unpainted canvas.

Always the scary part: Adding color to the face, I start on the edges and paint inward using Liquitex Cadmium Red Medium Hue and a smaller angled brush. Instead of applying paint from a palette, I simply applied it right from the tube onto the canvas. A thinner coat will go on afterwards.

The finished painting, which I'll call Bad Boss as it hangs in my house. This painting was completed in less than a week.

Paintings

I've been doing quite a few painting in the last 9 months and this is two of the most recent ones. I like the bigger canvasses and will probably stick with 3 foot by 4 foot size. For the first time since I started painting, I took photos along the way to show the progress. 

This painting was a little different since I started with a few thick coats of cadmium orange hue applied with a small paint roller. After that dried I started drawing out the character with a thin black acrylic paint marker.

All the details have been drawn in and the white outline started. 

Thickening up the areas where the fill will be black.

Filling in the flesh tones.

The only difference between the above and below photo is the black fill. Makes a pretty huge difference.

Aside from the white outline, I think I could have stopped here and been satisfied with the results.

The finished painting.

The new Liquitex acrylic paint markers are phenomenal and have brought me back into making hand drawn art again. The paint marker colors are matched to the Liquitex tube paint.

Another one I worked on around the same time.

Not 100% satisfied with how this one turned out, so I might redo it as my next project.