(Concentration) Project #18 Testing Keyboard

For project # 18 I wanted to do another watercolor painting of a picture from a past concert I had been to. This was from the Ty Segall show. In the picture it shows odd lighting on the band member, Mikal Cronin as he tests the keyboard he'll be playing the next song on. I chose this picture because I really liked the sort of thinking expression he gives as he's playing with the keyboard. I also really like the unusual lighting that makes him look multicolored. My color palette was blue, pink, red, green, brown, orange, and yellow. The medium I used was watercolor paint with pen. I started by sketching him out and then the keyboard. Second, I used brown water color pencil to evenly color his hair. I added pink, reds, and yellow on his skin and blended them together. I then took a wet brush and watered the colors on the paper and blended them more. After that I drew the shirt and filed it in with green and brown to make an olive green color. I wetted the brush again and blended some more. I lightly colored in the keyboard. After it all dried I went in with pen and outlined the guy and his keyboard. I added more detail to the face, hair, shirt, pants, and instrument. Although this was fairly simple and not a completely time consuming project I really liked how it turned out. I wanted the guy to look like he was in the moment when playing with his instrument and I think I did. I also enjoyed working with the color combination. It reminds me of a lava lamp in a way.

(Concentration) Project #17, Singer

I did a watercolor with pen and ink for project # 17. This came from a series of concert pictures I had taken at the concert for the band, Sleigh Bells. The woman who is the singer for the band is in the painting. I started off with drawing her out. Next, I added more detail throughout the figure with pencil. The detail is focused on the makeup, shirt, leather shorts, and fishnet stockings. I then used watercolor pencils to put color in the figure. I used black for the hair and evenly colored in. For the skin I used a light peach color and blended it with pink to show how the stage lights would hit the figure. I used a little bit of black to shade in around wrinkles in the leather shorts. Then I mixed green with brown to create an olive green for the woman's shirt. After that, I painted the background blending in the colors pink, purple, and blue to make a contrast between them. The colors represent the lighting on stage. After the watercolor paint dried, I used pen to outline the woman and all the details. My color palette for this piece was purple, pink, blue, olive green, peach, and black. My medium was watercolor. This project started off well, but I think I could have spent more time on the face because I think I over did it and went too strong with the pen. However, I think I did well on the rest of the body and its shape.

(Concentration) Project #16 music show

For project 16, I decided to look at some old pictures I have taken at shows I have been to. I had taken this picture of one of my favorite bands, Best Coast at a local record store. Best Coast's style of music is 60's, beach alternative. The songs are mostly upbeat so I wanted to incorporate that into the picture I would draw and paint. First, I drew out the lead singer and guitarist, Bethany Cosentino and her guitar. Next, I drew in her skin using a flesh toned water color pencil and mixed in a little orange to make her skin look tanner. Then, I filled in the color of her hair using brown and yellow watercolor pencils and blended them in. Since her dress was originally white, I decided to add light blue to show the shadows in her dress. After that, all that was left to color in was the hat and the guitar. Last thing I painted was the background and I used an ombre of yellow, orange, and red to portray the beach like sound of Best Coast's music. After the watercolor painting was all dry, I added in pen to outline details as well as stippling. The medium I chose was water color pencils and pen. My color palette for this piece was yellow, orange, rad, peach, light blue, brown, and some black.

(Concentration) Project #15, Playing Guitar

One day I was practicing playing my guitar when all of a sudden I had my next idea for project 15. I would draw a closeup picture of me playing guitar. First I got out a sheet of lavender paper and drew out the proportions and everything in the picture I took. Then I began to fill in the color of my forearm as well as my hand. I started using light flesh tones to dark and then adding in brown to add shadow and depth. I drew in the nails using red to create the look of my nail polish chipping. Next, I drew the wood part of the headstock of the guitar. I used a yellow cream color, browns, and tans. I used gold for the Fender lettering. Next, I drew the metal nobs on the headstock of the guitar. I used silver, a little bit of black, and white. After that I used a dark brown to color in the neck of the guitar. I added in the frets with sliver. I didn't want to leave the background blank so I decided to color it in using a sky blue. I thought by using the color, the image would pop out more. The medium I s=used was prisma color pencils. My color palette consisted of sky blue, flesh tones, tan, browns, silver, white, red, and the tiniest bit of black. I think I did well on this project. I took my time in making the hand look realistic and well as the headstock and neck of the guitar.

(Concentration) Project #14, Reflective CDs

For my 14th project I decided to make a prisma drawing of CDs with the reflective side up. I thought this was a good idea since I haven't drawn CDs before and it would give me a challenge. At first I started with a sheet of blue pastel paper, but this did not work out well. Even though I drew out the CDs and the detail of the different colors reflecting off of them, I accidentally made the proportions blobby and it just didn't look right. I also wanted a different background behind the CDs that wasn't wood. This led me to choosing black paper because I could just leave the background black and this would give me more time to focus on the CDs. The black paper was nice for that, however, The colors did not stand out as much and were less vibrant. Anyway, I started to draw it all out on the paper and then went in with color. I started on one CD at a time, adding colors and blending them in into one another. My color palette for this piece consisted of white, browns, blues, green, yellow, orange, red, and purple.  I'd say this was a challenging project and I did the best I could, given the about of time I had. I wanted to re-do it a third time, but I knew I would run out of time.