Shiva, light my fire

Airbrush time!!!

This is where I left off last session. I blocked in the red and some black spots to be the deepest level of fire. This was all done freehand with the airbrush. The paint I am using is Creatix liquid  airbrush paint.

I then blocked with the variety of shields shapes in orange. I added in some free hand areas to begin the flushing out process and to add some of the outer embers.

I went back in and darkened the lower half with more red. My plan is to have the lower portion more red with embers and fade gently up into brighter yellow flames.

It may be hard to tell in this photo, but the next stage here is a subtle blocking in with a yellow/orange over top the previous layer. The shields are soaked and my hands are covered in over spray. I am starting to get the hang of it.

I worked a brighter yellow over top and worked out some more shapes. I think I am going to do a second layer of the entire process again over this fire to create more depth and detail. I like using this shield method to create realistic looking fire paint effect.  I intend on painting the rest of the painting in oil. I have to have this part blocked in first since it is acrylic and it is the background before I proceed with the rest of the painting.

Flame shields

It was nice and sunny. I got up early and got outside and in the sun to get to work cutting my flame shields for my upcoming series.

I used a vellum product that was new to me called OPALUX. I bought a 19X 24", 110lb translucent sheet. I needed something that could be easily wiped clean if need be so I selected a type of velum. I also needed something that was stiff enough to stand up on its own to act as a stencil or masking object when airbrushing in my flames.

Above you can see the shapes I made and how they fit together. This material is quite nice to draw on and cut fairly well.  However, I would prefer a thicker material that holds it shape better. I also found the opalux to be too brittle, it chips and cracks too easily, making little imperfections in some of the curves. I do not recommend opalux for this purpose, in future will NOT used for creating stencils or shields. But that is how you figure things out, you try them and see if they work. I still think watercolor paper is much better suited for the task.

I taped the shields back together with some thick masking tape. This worked great to keep them together but also added rigidity to my shields. I  cut out some of the little detailed flame elements. When not in use they will be taped over, so now I have three shields that can be separated into six to make a wide variety of shapes for when I paint my flame backgrounds.

And I did it all in the sun on my stoop while having breakfast in the sunlight, a great way to start some art today ;)

Here are some examples form google of how the finished work is supposed to look!

Then out came the trusty watercolour paper. I found a site online that offered a variety of other examples of templates for more variety of flame shield.  Get them here at : www.chuckbauman.com 

With all these I'll have a huge variety of things I can do, I am so excited to get started. Alas, I have to wait for about two weeks as I am taking a two week, full-time traditional portraits in oils course. In the evenings I have martial arts and salsa class and on the week-end I am doing an animation lock down and lilac fest. Busy bunny =B