Step-By-Step Illustration, Part Deux & Final Art!

A commenter on the previous post asked about the blue tape... this was a wonderful recent discovery. It's blue house painter's tape. (I had to buy a second roll after husband stole the first one to paint our upstairs hallway. Note to self: hide art supplies!) I don't stretch my watercolor paper, as wetting and drying it too many times messes with the quality of pencil line, but sometimes it was a struggle to keep the paper from rippling. It wasn't a huge problem, but I figured there had to be a better way to keep the paper flat. Also, I wanted to keep the bleed edge neater, just because. Voilá, the painter's tape works great.

So, onward with the continuation of Part One...

6) Here, I'm continuing to build up the color and line, jumping back and forth between the two:


















7) At this point I'm feeling better about the piece, and pretty sure it will work out. I'm also always making mental notes to myself about how I think it's going, and which part to work on next. Positive self talk is so important, especially when you have a nasty inner critic! The changes are more subtle from here on out:

















8) Almost there. It's nice to have the luxury of time to take little breaks, in order to see a piece with fresh eyes. Color fatigue can be brutal on the ol' eyeballs! For this reason, I like to save final details for first thing in the morning:

















9) And at last, the finished piece:















Many thanks to everyone who commented on the previous post. I really appreciate all the kind words! Now, back to the drawing board...