Final idea development.

Final idea development. 

This post will talk and explain how my recent final idea development came about. It will be split up into sections to show how I produced one piece then how I further developed that.

Method: Charlotte and Lucia combination.

1.  First I gathered my material, which consisted of, fine pens, pencils, acrylic paint, water colour's and a pot of water.
2. Next you'll need to draw out your design, Which will be different as you can see from the above example. Since I'm combining Charlotte and Lucia I split the face in half, one side having my features and the others with lilly's.
3. Then I painted in lilly's features in the traditional colour's of browns, blacks and white, refer back to Charlotte's post on this painting technique. After allow the paint to dry to avoid smudging the paint when wet.
4. Following this I then put in the details on my side of the face, for this I used water colours and ink, the idea behind it was to make it as illustrative as possible to clash with the semi-realist features on lilly.
5. For the eyes and lips  I used water colour's and a wash for the colour to the cheeks and the shadow around the nose. 
6. I also did a second copy of this, but in the warm and cool colours and instead of water colours for the lips I used Indian ink.
7. Then clean up the paint brushes and your work area. You'll be needing the acrylic paint and pens again.

My next stage of development was solely focusing on the facial features. For this experiment I discarded Lucia's style because i found it wasn't benefiting for the face so I'd apply it somewhere else later.

Method: 

1. First sketch out your image. I changed my composition for this because i felt it looked better at an angle.
2. Next go over the sketch in pen, this doesn't have to be delicate it can be messy. 
3. Following this you can start painting in the style of Charlotte, refer back to my post on her if you're still unsure. It's basically painting as accurately as you can and getting the eyes as realistic as possible. Don't forget to switch brush sizes when doing more delicate details.
4. I also did a version in contrasting colours because I was still unsure which palette I preferred this helped me decide.
5. You can now put away your brown acrylic paint because its not longer needed. Also clean out your brushes and water pot because more painting is coming up. 

For this development I added in Lucia and Madge Gill (zentangle). The idea behind this experiment was to see if all of these elements combined would work.

Method:

1. For this you'll need a wider range of material so go gather the rest of the equipment which is, charcoal, soft pastels, pens and acrylic.
2. Next sketch out your design like you did for the experiment before, this time you don't need to go over it with pen .
3. Then begin painting just like you did before, using the warm and cool colours (blues, greens, reds and yellows) to save time I just painted half of the face. 
4. The next stage of development is doing the zentangle of the ears, using the pen. Refer back to my zentangle post if you've forgotten how to do it. Again i just used basic patterns of squares, triangles and circles.
5. Then its on to the hair, for this I referred back to the beginning of my development. This is were Lucia comes in. Since her style didn't work with the face I chose to do it with the hair. 
6. To do this take your soft (brown) pastel, and produce long strokes to imitate the movement of hair. Then use the charcoal to add definition and depth to the hair. This is especially important when trying to blend the ears into the hair. I went over the zentangle with the pastel to make the blending easier.
7. Don't forget to hair spray it to make the charcoal and pastel stick. Make sure to do this in a ventilated room or outside.
   

The final bit of development comes from experimenting with the surface material. For this you'll need little test pieces of calico. This process is split into four sections because you'll be dissecting the image and testing each individual piece separately

Method:

1. First you need to sketch out just the face onto the calico, don't include the hair or collar.
2. Then attempt to paint onto the calico. Before you do this you'll need to put a piece of paper under the calico to stop the paint seeping through onto the table.
3. Paint the same way you have been since the start of this development.
4. Then you need to go and get a sewing machine out. To set up a sewing machine refer back to your notes. Start by using a light blue thread.
5. Once that's done using the free hand stitch, begin to sew/highlight the areas of lighter shades of blue, then switch the thread to orange and do the same for the snout of the dog, then the same with dark blue, this time outlining the darker areas.Then pack up the sewing machine.
6. After that you'll need to get another piece of calico and this time try the hair out, using soft pastels and charcoal, just repeat step 6 from the previous experiment just don't worry about the ears because they haven't been drawn on yet. This is just a quick experiment.
7. Then you need another piece and with this split it into two because on one half you'll be experimenting with the collar and on the other the ears. 
8. First the ears, draw them out in pencil then proceed to zentangle the inside of the ears with a pen, make sure the pen is working. Refer back to the zentangle post.
9. Then move onto the collar. Start out by sketching the rough outline.
10. Then thread up the needle with either green or orange. Then start out using back stitch to fill in the sketch. Following lilly's original collar design. For the buckle switch to a black thread.
11. After that clean up your work area make sure the equipment is packed away.
    
    

Health & safety.

1. Clean up after you've finished.
2. Make sure when you use the hair spray that you're in a well ventilated room or outside.
3. Be careful not to prick yourself with the needle.
4. If you get anything in your eye or mouth wash it out with cold water.