International Jazz Day
For this illustration, which is a fanart of the Disney movie "Soul," as Jazz music would have it, the theme was improvisation. And I must say that I had a lot of fun, even though I broke a really cold sweat at certain times. "Trust the process" as my mantra.😂
Given the abundance of experimentation I opted for a simple, printed subject. basically I scanned the original line. First, because you never know and I didn't want to have to redraw a piano all over again, second because then I could work on different types of paper to achieve different effects.
(I used Copic paper selection: purple, i.e., Premium Bond Paper, for the character and yellow, Basic Paper, for the background)
My companions in experimentation were Copic markers, Copic Ink refills, Copic Airbrush, spray bottles of the travel kind, and some very ordinary cooking alcohol.
I filled the small bottles with alcohol, (which even though it's pink, the layer that settles on the sheet is so thin you can't see it, so it's not a problem) and a few drops of Copic Ink refill. I experimented until I got the desired shade by spraying on a separate sheet. Remember that if you want to waste less refill because of dilution, you can use a darker-intense color.
For blue I used B05+B39, for pink RV19, for green YG03+B05
TIP: Spraying alcohol will make a lot of smell, so be sure to do it in a well-ventilated room if you are sensitive, even outdoors if you need to. And protect your surfaces and clothes well from any drips or ill-aimed sprays--I spread an old towel on the table.
Once you've achieved a satisfactory result and done some trial and error, it's time to get the paper ready.
I wanted to leave some white stave-like lines, so I used washi tape and a box cutter to mask them. It was really a gamble because I had no idea if the paper was suitable for what I wanted to do...it turned out okay, come on.😂
And ready to start spraying.
Grossly, by areas of color, just BY FEELING. The focus you need while you're standing there praying you don't screw up and each spray might come out beautiful or ugly, but you can't help it and you keep going serenely because you can't tell until the end whether it's going to suck or not.
Since the bottles make big sprays with scattered droplets, I helped myself with L'airbrush Copic to give some airbrush detail, with a nice B26: I passed it around the pentagram and in some wavy lines to give the idea of a flow, a vaporous movement to the atmosphere.
The paper I used, Basic Paper, is very thin so it undulates easily, which is why it was attached to a cardboard backing, which is also very useful for moving and changing the angle of the paper to encourage splashing. however, it has the advantage of not piercing and helping the colors blend together more evenly, which is why it seemed suitable for the purpose.
I went through several coats of sprays letting them dry between each pass so as to intensify the colors, but avoiding drips from excess liquid.
At this stage I was still in a cold sweat, because it seemed terrible.
So I decided to add a few more effects by spraying blue using a leaflet to partially cover the area and get vertical lines. It gave me that "aurora borealis" effect that I was not expecting.
Finally I took off the washi tape, I have to say that the lines came out nice and clean as I would have liked, but they had that certain something, liquid, like a bit of all the "watery" texture of the background. i cleaned them up using acrylic white and a flat brush, plus a few sprinkles to simulate a starry sky.
To top it off, on the Premium Bond card I colored the main character, classically, making sure to leave pink and teal highlights to match the background.
Since the idea is for him to be bathed in semi-darkness with colored lights, as in the movie, all tones turn to blue and purple, even the skin!
For Joe I used:
Face - V15, v17, B97 for the hair
Hat - B97, with headband V17
Clothes - B97, B26
lighting effects - RV02, RV04, BG23
in total there are 7 colors that were also used for the piano.
Once completed, I carefully cut out the character with a box cutter to paste over the previously prepared background, and TA-DAAN!
Here it is, it's nothing much, but I had a lot of fun making it, I hope you'll try experimenting with it too!
Alice