Kristina of Kryptonite

I was recently given two Kryptonite coloring packages by an artist friend and fellow colorista Kris Fulgar. I decided to work on Kristina immediately for personal reasons. My sister's name is Christina with a different spelling obviously, but also because her wedding is happening in less than a month and she's been especially in my thoughts lately.

My main medium was colored pencils. For this project I thought I'd go back to using my wax based Prismacolor set. Besides being fun to blend because I always end up having a thick layer of wax on the paper because of wax blooming, Prismacolor pencils are also a bit more vibrant in color, hence less effort to color. I always use a blender when blending and, whenever I do so, I notice that the color also deepen more after I blend.

After applying the colors on most of the image, and leaving the jewelry drawings and other designs for final ink touch ups, I started to work on the background.

Started to work on the background with a pale yellow color using the pencil flicking technique

In rendering the base color on paper I was slow and purposeful in my strokes. Aware that it's the base of the background I was not after shading and highlighting. My strokes were as much as possible even and in one direction. Pressure had to be steady, no hard or light strokes, everything must just be of the same, even pressure. I stopped about an inch and a half from the edge of the paper leaving the rest blank for now.

The darker shade was applied using cross hatching technique in different directions.

Then beginning at the edge of the paper I began to apply a darker shade, burnt sienna. The application technique I used was no longer light strokes. I varied the pressure of the strokes AND their directions. Some strokes were heavier than others, some were lighter. The directions weren't dictated by the base color, strokes were directionless. I wanted to achieve the final look like a sponged painting, so the more uneven the shades of the color, the better.

The pale yellow and burnt sienna will be overlapping. I chose a darker yellow to shade on top of the two colors to even out the transition in the blended areas. I applied the darker yellow the same way I applied the burnt sienna, uneven pressure and with different directions.

Once there was enough wax on the paper I started to blend using Derwent pencil blender from the edge of the paper. When I blend I move in a circular motion to be able to move across all the lines in just a few strokes. Also since the sponge painted look can also be achieved if the movement of the blender is circular.

I'm always very discerning of the color value and shade I want to achieve. If an area needs to be erased or darkened to achieve gradation in the colors then I stop blending first to put more wax lines for blending.

Blending as I go

 In this video http://youtu.be/89vNDudPZO0 I'm simply showing how to apply an even background using the flick technique. The time lapse video doesn't show it very much but the flicking technique is something that tests one's patience because it's slow and rhythmic. I find it best to use this technique for backgrounds because it helps me avoid rushing into coloring and prevents me from erasing mistakes which can be costly when working on backgrounds.

In this other video http://youtu.be/FfyhhrO4Z2Y I'm doing the cross hatching from the edge of the paper to the center. Burnt sienna and dark yellow are mixed for even blending.

For the border I used a Chameleon black marker and applied the lines and dots using the brush tip.

Oh! I almost left out the fun part, the glitters! For this I used Wink of Stella brush, both gold and clear. The clear is the most fun since I can apply it on any part of the image and the pencils are unmoved by the wet brush tip. The glitters just sit there until it is absorbed which is instantly. It was like playing with nail polish!

I'm quite happy with the end product although to be honest I could've planned the color scheme better. Oh well, at least it's done, I'm quite satisfied, and I can move on to another work after three days of working on this on and off.