Teatime @ the Baobab Space

The Process

This picture started out with the photocomposition of us sitting in Senegal with the giraffes. Which was a compilation of the body of a man pouring tea in which Mamadou's head was stuck on. For a neighbor he was recalcitrant in offering any pictures that might facilitate finding any highlights on his face to ease the rendering process of his image....Neverless I fought though it. Emma, on the other hand I photographed sitting outside of the Baobab space and found accessible photos on the web of him with the appropriate light and modeling of his features. The Giraffes, I had never met, but surreptitiously gathered off the net. They made for a nice touch.

As usual, these drawings were done first on Sketch paper and then scqanned innto the computer to piece togethor. Then original sketches were colored and scanned in as well. But here came the problem. When applying colored pencil to that paper before watercolors, the scan produced an excess of texture obscuring the fine lines of the drawing. This was fixed through painting in photoshop with a lowered opacity control on the layers. Then printed and fixed with colored pencil once more on hot press paer versus the cold press sketch paper. The Drum was done on water color paper. Drawn in graphite. Painted in water color. Excentuated with colored pencil. Then fleshed out in ink. But still proposed color balance problems upon scanning. But remedied.

Life is nothing short of a challenge at times.

Here is the original graphite drawing of Emma in the sketch Book. To his left is the outline of the giraffe. In the photocomposition, this was the placement of the animal. But in the end, Emma was moved to the right, exposing more of his arm and shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we add a little color, but considering the way to create his skin tone gave me pause. In the end I might still be doing another image to do him even more justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then here we see an early Graphite composition of the various sketches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, jag this way for the finished Picture!

Click on images to enlarge

Count Me In !