Step By Step

Step 1—The Drawing
This is where they all start for me—a drawing on a board. Many illustrators work out their compositions and drawing on paper and then transfer them to their painting surface with carbon paper. However, transfering a drawing that you've already done and then tuning it up on the final surface is tedious work, and I also feel that some of the spontenaity of the original sketch is often lost. Therefor, I opt to draw directly on my surface. I've already roughed out what my composition will be and with that in mind, I draw directly on my board.

For this piece, I am using #115 Hot Press Crescent Watercolor Board. It's a heavy illustration board with a medium smoothness surface that is forgiving to erasers but provides enough tooth to work on in pencil and paint.

The drawing is the most important part of the whole process for me. I'll spend several days on a large drawing, sometimes almost as long as the painting itself.

Once the drawing is done, I'll seal it down with some matte medium. This gives me a non-absorbant surface for me to apply the paint to—and I'm ready to go.

Step 2—Background
Ok, I cheated here. I've left out about two steps. My second step is really to put a ground coat over the entire piece. This is a color that I pick based on how I want the overall tones of the piece to appear in the final painting. For this piece, I've used a mixture of dioxizine purple and burnt siena. That's what's giving that sort of magenta looking color all over the board. I smear this on with a rag, dark enough to push back the bright white of the board, but thin enough that I can still see my pencil lines through it. I forgot to take a picture with just the ground coat over the board, but it's not really very exciting and you'll get to see plenty of it.

Where I cheated here is that the next step is usually to do an underpainting over the piece. I will generally render the entire painting in a monochrome undrpainting...sort of a black and white version, but then the color of the ground coat shows through that. The underpainting helps to establish all of the values of the final painting, but I sometimes omit this step for time considerations or if I have a strong concept of how the values and shadows should appear. With this painting, I knew the foreground would be very dark overall and I didn't want any solid shadows in the background, so I dropped the step.

From there I move onto the background. This is the first application of paint with an actual brush. I start at the very back, usually with the sky, and work my wat forward. This painting being primarily a landscape, most of the actual work was done in the background and middle ground of the castle.

Step 3—Foreground Elements
With the background completed, I move to the foreground elements—trees, stones, etc. In this piece, the trees are meant to frame the castle as the main focus of the painting. To keep your attention on the castle, I've made these elements in the foreground almost silouhettes, with very little light on them at all.

Step 4—The figure
This is always the part that is the most fun in any painting—the characters. In truth, I can hardly stand to paint backgrounds and landscapes at all. I get bored with them very quickly, but I can spend as much time fiddling with the characters as I need without ever feeling a bit tired. Unfortunately, in this painting, the character is a secondary subject, and therfore smaller and even a bit hidden. Consequently, she was fairly quick to paint. Nonetheless, she turns what would otherwise have been a very still and mundane setting into an interesting place, with character and mystery...at least that's what I hope she's doing.

Step 5—Final Details
All that purple finally covered up! Once the ninja figure was done, I could paint all of those plants around her. I then added the leaves in the tree branches, as well as the dappled light filtering through them. Last, I wrote the kanji on the rock monolith that the ninja is hiding behind. I had it translated by my pal Kazuhito who lives in Kyoto, Japan. Literally, it means something like 'Castle in leaves where ninja live'. Close enough for me—it's 'Hidden Fortress'.

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	Step 1—The Drawing This is where they all start for me—a drawing on a board. Many illustrators work out their compositions and drawing on paper and then transfer them to their painting surface with carbon paper. However, transfering a drawing that you've already done and then tuning it up on the final surface is tedious work, and I also feel that some of the spontenaity of the original sketch is often lost. Therefor, I opt to draw directly on my surface. I've already roughed out what my composition will be and with that in mind, I draw directly on my board. For this piece, I am using #115 Hot Press Crescent Watercolor Board. It's a heavy illustration board with a medium smoothness surface that is forgiving to erasers but provides enough tooth to work on in pencil and paint. The drawing is the most important part of the whole process for me. I'll spend several days on a large drawing, sometimes almost as long as the painting itself. Once the drawing is done, I'll seal it down with some matte medium. This gives me a non-absorbant surface for me to apply the paint to—and I'm ready to go.
	Step 2—Background Ok, I cheated here. I've left out about two steps. My second step is really to put a ground coat over the entire piece. This is a color that I pick based on how I want the overall tones of the piece to appear in the final painting. For this piece, I've used a mixture of dioxizine purple and burnt siena. That's what's giving that sort of magenta looking color all over the board. I smear this on with a rag, dark enough to push back the bright white of the board, but thin enough that I can still see my pencil lines through it. I forgot to take a picture with just the ground coat over the board, but it's not really very exciting and you'll get to see plenty of it. Where I cheated here is that the next step is usually to do an underpainting over the piece. I will generally render the entire painting in a monochrome undrpainting...sort of a black and white version, but then the color of the ground coat shows through that. The underpainting helps to establish all of the values of the final painting, but I sometimes omit this step for time considerations or if I have a strong concept of how the values and shadows should appear. With this painting, I knew the foreground would be very dark overall and I didn't want any solid shadows in the background, so I dropped the step. From there I move onto the background. This is the first application of paint with an actual brush. I start at the very back, usually with the sky, and work my wat forward. This painting being primarily a landscape, most of the actual work was done in the background and middle ground of the castle.
	Step 3—Foreground Elements With the background completed, I move to the foreground elements—trees, stones, etc. In this piece, the trees are meant to frame the castle as the main focus of the painting. To keep your attention on the castle, I've made these elements in the foreground almost silouhettes, with very little light on them at all.
	Step 4—The figure This is always the part that is the most fun in any painting—the characters. In truth, I can hardly stand to paint backgrounds and landscapes at all. I get bored with them very quickly, but I can spend as much time fiddling with the characters as I need without ever feeling a bit tired. Unfortunately, in this painting, the character is a secondary subject, and therfore smaller and even a bit hidden. Consequently, she was fairly quick to paint. Nonetheless, she turns what would otherwise have been a very still and mundane setting into an interesting place, with character and mystery...at least that's what I hope she's doing.
	Step 5—Final Details All that purple finally covered up! Once the ninja figure was done, I could paint all of those plants around her. I then added the leaves in the tree branches, as well as the dappled light filtering through them. Last, I wrote the kanji on the rock monolith that the ninja is hiding behind. I had it translated by my pal Kazuhito who lives in Kyoto, Japan. Literally, it means something like 'Castle in leaves where ninja live'. Close enough for me—it's 'Hidden Fortress'.