Art: Oh, aching heart! (G if you are European, PG if you are American ;P)

[sigune]

I was about to give up on this one, really. I worked on it till two in the morning, and the result wasn't at all what I had wished it to be. Urgh. Sleep has become very precious to me, and I wasted it for a lousy picture! The problem was the blacks, which is a bit ... painful ... in a Snape picture. I really don't manage to mix a good black, and I didn't want to use an unmixed one because those always look a bit dull - and a dull black wouldn't have looked good next to Severus's luminous skin. When I finally went to sleep, Snape had blue-purple hair and blue-purple robes. It was a real pity, I thought, because my inks were good - I'd done them with a Faber-Castell brush pen, which I find more manageable than a real brush.

This morning I decided to pull a Marini. Okay, that sounds better than it looks - I'm *far from* a Marini :/. I only mean that I opted for suggesting black in a way that I have picked up from Marini's art for Le Scorpion. I probably did it backwards, though. It's probable that Marini inks first and then adds watercolour; in this case I painted first and added ink afterwards :-).

The result is okay, but I'm not sure it's entirely what it could have been. Maybe I'll end up doing another version...?











I'm still having trouble with my scanner. The white doesn't scan as white, but comes out greyish or yellowish. That's rather a pain when it concerns a watercolour :/.

Also, next time I should probably give some thought to my backgrounds XD.

Comments

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

OH my good gosh I love that!
His hair! The effect you got there is brilliant, and I'm also very found of the black shading on the coat. The suggestions of black works great. You know it's a black coat but it's not a boring black coat by any means and those black lines are so lively and interesting!

Ok and the shadow behind him is also a great use of mixed colors to create an non-dull shadow. What colors did you use?

I painted first and added ink afterwards
That is how I paint and ink =P

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

Marini uses this technique all the time in Le Scorpion - sometimes he uses bluish paint, or brown, or grey, and the result is always "black". Mind you, of course he can mix black too if he likes XD.
*sigh*
He's so very good.

The colours for the shadow... I used a mixture of Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine and Viridian Green. Then I did a wash of Payne's grey here and there, and in the end I added a few drops of crimson and Cadmium Yellow Pale in places.
- Actually, looking at that list of colours, it seems like a lot of trouble for some shadow ;-).

[veradee.livejournal.com]

LOL... This is more like an R, isn't it? Honestly, I think he looks really sexy.

The colours might no be what you had in mind, but I think they work very well. His hair is gorgeous, and I like that his robe has that black-blueish colour.

And did I mention that he looks really sexy?

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

Oh, Marini... you know, I bought the first Scorpion a while ago (and thank you so much for recommending it!) and the first thing I thought when I saw this painting here, was: That looks Marini-ish!
And I love the different shades of blue and grey you used for the coat and the hair.

[lunafish.livejournal.com]

I really like the coloring, but it's the facial expression that really gets me. There's such vulnerability there, emphasized by the protruding collar and cheek bones. I also really like his hair in this pic--it's so textured. (Not sure if that's the right word, but hopefully it makes sense.) I just want to reach out and touch it, esp. the strand on the left.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

*wants to nibble on his thin upper lip*

Fantastic, hon.

[zefla.livejournal.com]

I actually like the purpley blue colour...it might have looked a bit overdone if you'd managed to get it black black. As it is it looks like he's illuminated by a candle or something so very nice. :)

Though having said that its a gorgeous picture...his hands are freaking me out somewhat...not quite sure why either. Ah well...*runs off with Snape*

[corvus-coronis.livejournal.com]

<3 him, you did an excellent job.