Returning to the Hobby

Work continues on the wandering monk.  I started by working on highlighting the skin.  As I stated, I knew that I was going to make some mistakes.  I always do.  Sometimes my greatest successes are from fixing my errors.  I did not thin my flesh color (Reaper Caucasian flesh) enough.  It was too stark of a change, and I was pretty far along before I realized it.  To solve this, I thinned the same color down to a glaze consistency.  I applied slight glazes that would create a mid-tone and brighten the highlights. It turned out pretty well.  I also noticed a spot on his face where the wash pooled at the side of his nose.  So I fixed that while I was at it.

Speaking of wash, there was a lot of pooling at the bottom of his robes.  And while in most of the places it is not too terrible, there are a few places where the pooling is not in the depression of the robe, but rather where my highlight should be.  Attempts were made to fix it, things got worse.  I felt that a quick start over was needed.  So I reapplied the base coat to the lower part of the robes and attempted a second wash.

The second attempt did not turn out better.  I tried to use less of the wash, but it separated in places and left some textures behind.

Confession time.  I hate painting folds in clothing.  There I  said it.  I hear other painters talk about how they love beautiful prominent folds that will allow for sweet blends.  Getting smooth blends has always been a struggle for me.  It is tied to another thing that I struggle with, and that is mixing colors to match.  I can take notes, but it is a rare occurrence that I can mix a matching color. (You will see this later in this post.)

For this reason, I try to focus on completing a color during a session. So during one lunch break, I spent the whole hour attempting to fix the robes.  I started by reapplying the yellowed bone that I have been using as the base for my robes. (I misidentified it as skeleton bone in an earlier post.)  It was a bit stark, and I liked the warm yellow that was created from the wash.  I created several different mixes between sepia liner and yellowed bone and began applying layers. I then glazed the sepia wash over to try and smooth out the blends.