Hitting a Wall

Today I finished the sketches for my new Paige and Webb adventure: Applesauce. I’m getting it ready to submit to the Walden Tassy Awards on Wednesday. These sketches are what slowed me down last week. Today I finished them and started taking a few of the sketches to finished art.

In the past Paige and Webb have been graphite pencil that I scanned in and applied color in photoshop. I’ve been painting since the Spring/Summer of 2020, so I decided to paint these. When I get a contract to illustrate a book, painting on panel is not going to be very time efficient nor cost efficient. So, I chose to paint them on paper.

That is causing me a head ache. First of all, I’ve learned over the last 18 months that the best way to get white to pop in acrylics is to have a neutral color behind it. Paper also reacts differently than gesso on a panel. The paint was soaking in and all of the white behind it meant that I was going to need to do several coats in the shadow areas to cover up the white. And I’m just not liking how the painting is looking.

Demon eyes aside, I was not happy with how the paint was flowing on the paper and how much white I could see through the paper. I want me whites to pop off the page.

I have thought of a couple of options. I could gesso the paper. I could even lay down a coat of neutral paint and tone the paper. One reason paper makes such an efficient surface is I can run it through my printer. I haven’t tried printing on gesso or paint. I’ve got another idea: print the neutral color on the paper as I print the drawing on it. I’ve tried that out and it is on my desk waiting for fresh energy in the morning.