The Crab Claw, part 2
You were so patient! Glad to have you back. And hi, new followers: Janine, JBird and Lisa! Check out their respective blogs after today's installment of "The Crab Claw."
The story thus far:
Once there was a girl who was born with a crab claw where her right hand should have been. At first, no one seemed to notice the claw itself, but they did notice what it clung to: words, hair, other people. As she grew, her clutch turned...
Bwahahaha! Tomorrow, darlings, tomorrow.
I finally figured out the skin colors on the last try, and kept reworking the color. Hopefully stapling this page into my notebook will keep me from reinventing the (color) wheel. Again.
I started painting the highlights first with Medium Flesh (Apple Barrel). The lips are Flesh, which seems to be darker.
I mixed Medium Flesh and Burnt Sienna (Golden) for the shadows at the eyes, around the mouth and hairline. Indian Yellow Hue came next. It's translucent, more like a smear unless you load it on, but I thinned it with a little water anyway.
Finally, I did a few coats of slightly watered-down Burnt Sienna (Golden), which I mopped up with a tissue (and dried with a heat gun between coats). I think I scumbled the brush a bit to help blend the edges. 
The hair is Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue, which produces a soft black.
I also sanded and painted the crab pincers all at the same time, so the shapes and colors would be uniform. Which was especially important for the next four cards... that you'll see in the coming days.
The story thus far:
Once there was a girl who was born with a crab claw where her right hand should have been. At first, no one seemed to notice the claw itself, but they did notice what it clung to: words, hair, other people. As she grew, her clutch turned...Bwahahaha! Tomorrow, darlings, tomorrow.
I finally figured out the skin colors on the last try, and kept reworking the color. Hopefully stapling this page into my notebook will keep me from reinventing the (color) wheel. Again.
I started painting the highlights first with Medium Flesh (Apple Barrel). The lips are Flesh, which seems to be darker.I mixed Medium Flesh and Burnt Sienna (Golden) for the shadows at the eyes, around the mouth and hairline. Indian Yellow Hue came next. It's translucent, more like a smear unless you load it on, but I thinned it with a little water anyway.Finally, I did a few coats of slightly watered-down Burnt Sienna (Golden), which I mopped up with a tissue (and dried with a heat gun between coats). I think I scumbled the brush a bit to help blend the edges. The hair is Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue, which produces a soft black.I also sanded and painted the crab pincers all at the same time, so the shapes and colors would be uniform. Which was especially important for the next four cards... that you'll see in the coming days.
The Crab Claw, part 1
Siddown, kids. It's fairy tale time.
Remember how we were talking about telling yourself a fairy tale in which you decide what the ending should be? I wrote one for the Artfest book of ATCs I'm working on. I decided to spread the love over seven ATCs, so if you stick around you'll be able to read the whole story. It starts like this:
"... seemed to what?! Finish the sentence!"
No. Not gonna. Not 'til tomorrow, anyhow.
Because the claw had to be baby-sized for this ATC, I sanded down a bread bag clip to the bare essentials, painted an undercoat of black, then painted two or three colors over that. Tricky, but not impossible.
The paintover method I learned from Lisa Bebi is both fun and challenging, especially when painting skin tones on a person of color. If this were a white baby, I could probably get away with either or both of these:
But, um, the paint companies don't make "African American flesh"-- good God, what a horrible thought. Makes me think of Strange Fruit -- so I use these colors:
From one or two colors, to eight to ten, depending. Can't just add soft white to burnt umber to get the color I want. Otherwise the skin looks flat, like I used wall paint or something. Remember my first attempts?
And if you're trying to paint a chocolate-skinned person, for example, the person comes out looking like they're wearing blackface. Whoops.
So this little pumpkin's skin is the result of experimenting on another, larger photo I used on the next ATC. Bwahahaha... now you have to come back to find out more.
Remember how we were talking about telling yourself a fairy tale in which you decide what the ending should be? I wrote one for the Artfest book of ATCs I'm working on. I decided to spread the love over seven ATCs, so if you stick around you'll be able to read the whole story. It starts like this:
"... seemed to what?! Finish the sentence!"No. Not gonna. Not 'til tomorrow, anyhow.
Because the claw had to be baby-sized for this ATC, I sanded down a bread bag clip to the bare essentials, painted an undercoat of black, then painted two or three colors over that. Tricky, but not impossible.
The paintover method I learned from Lisa Bebi is both fun and challenging, especially when painting skin tones on a person of color. If this were a white baby, I could probably get away with either or both of these:But, um, the paint companies don't make "African American flesh"-- good God, what a horrible thought. Makes me think of Strange Fruit -- so I use these colors:From one or two colors, to eight to ten, depending. Can't just add soft white to burnt umber to get the color I want. Otherwise the skin looks flat, like I used wall paint or something. Remember my first attempts?And if you're trying to paint a chocolate-skinned person, for example, the person comes out looking like they're wearing blackface. Whoops.So this little pumpkin's skin is the result of experimenting on another, larger photo I used on the next ATC. Bwahahaha... now you have to come back to find out more.
Once, there was...
"Fairy tales" are the theme for this year's Artfest, and I'm continually surprised at how flexible this idea is. It's dovetailing nicely into archetypes and ideas I'm trying to realize.
I'm making ATCs for the swap Bee Shay is putting together, after having a great time doing the swap for AF 2008. Some of the ATCs will be snippets of a fairy tale I wrote for the occasion. I got the idea from a speaker I heard this past summer, who made a marvelous suggestion about letting go of old ideas about yourself.
You know how fairy tales begin, "Once upon a time..." or "Once there was a boy/girl/donkey/bear/bird..."? Tell yourself a story about yourself, beginning with the phrase "Once there was a..."
The speaker pointed out that a sentence beginning that way could imply "once this was true, but it isn't anymore." Which is pretty hopeful: Just because you've struggled with a particular failing does not mean you'll always have to drag it around.
I'm making ATCs for the swap Bee Shay is putting together, after having a great time doing the swap for AF 2008. Some of the ATCs will be snippets of a fairy tale I wrote for the occasion. I got the idea from a speaker I heard this past summer, who made a marvelous suggestion about letting go of old ideas about yourself.You know how fairy tales begin, "Once upon a time..." or "Once there was a boy/girl/donkey/bear/bird..."? Tell yourself a story about yourself, beginning with the phrase "Once there was a..."
The speaker pointed out that a sentence beginning that way could imply "once this was true, but it isn't anymore." Which is pretty hopeful: Just because you've struggled with a particular failing does not mean you'll always have to drag it around.