Painting Process

This duck example was done a while back as a quick reply to someone asking about my painting technique. It shows:

1. The initial sketch
2. Adding the flats, lights and darks
3. Laying in the background colors
4. Blending, detailing and touch up

I basically use the same process now with the following additions:

After the sketch, I change the background to a neutral color

I give more thought to the background colors, laying in splashes to see how they work with or affect the main color scheme.

To create the background in “Bloodworm,” I started out playing with random brushstrokes and shades of red. I sketched the creature and built up the volume using the background colors plus blues and yellows for shadows and highlights. I added some texturing and called it done.