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Description
Roll With It 2 - April 2023

A combination of three colour challenge (acrylic ink) and draw-this-again of a piece I did 12 years ago.

I love the background. I'm starting off with something positive here. The combination of the watercolour splatter with the ghostly fog through the trees? *chef's kiss* Yes. Exactly the kind of thing I want to do more of going forward.

But...I really don't like the rest of the colour selection.
I did a colour comp digitally before starting.
I hated it.
Then I followed that colour comp exactly.
And hated it.
*surprised Pikachu face*

It was far worse yesterday but I spent a few hours today working on it some more, so I'd consider it at least salvaged. At this point my feelings on it are 'meh' rather than full on bitterness. So that's an improvement. I think my issue is that I did the background first (which normally helps me keep all other colours cohesive), but then I loved the background with the uncoloured character so much that everything else I did to it felt like making it worse. In addition to that, even though the background is a mix of all three colours, all of the colours on the character felt like they clashed with it. I didn't think that was possible with such a limited palette. I had her less saturated initially and it looked even worse, so I brightened her up to make it at least a little better.

Funnily enough, I think it's the background that makes me dislike the piece. If she was on just the white paper I think I'd be happier with how she turned out, but she doesn't fit with the background. Lesson learned.

Anyway.
Bitterness aside.

One of the things that I didn't plan for but was really cool to work with is that the three colours I chose happened to have very different pigment weights. What that meant is that when I mixed the three colours and did a wash, they'd sink into the paper at different rates and cause hue shifts. Yellow was heaviest. It sank almost immediately. The pthalo green (blue shade) was the mid-tier, so as it dried it would create a green border at the edges while the center stayed far pinker due to the magenta floating the longest. This also meant that if I mixed a bunch of colour and then let it sit for a few minutes while I worked, I'd tend to use the upper layer that was more pink-green and then when I got to the end of it and mixed it all up again the "new" paint was significantly yellower.
All of this was really cool and showed up even better on hot press paper (which I was doing swatches on), but also wasn't something I planned on working around so made things trickier.

In the end I think the biggest issue I have with this piece is I made myself work on it. I didn't want to, but I pushed through "to get back in the swing of things," and as a result I didn't make the best decisions I could have because I wasn't motivated to find the best options.

So maybe in 12 years I'll do it again with a clearer head.

Until then, I love the line art and I love the background, so I can at least go forward with that.

Done with Liquitex Acrylic Ink (Yellow Medium Azo, Pthalo Green [Blue Shade], and Magenta) on Artist Loft watercolor paper.
8"x10".

Original:

Description
Roll With It 2 - April 2023

A combination of three colour challenge (acrylic ink) and draw-this-again of a piece I did 12 years ago.

I love the background. I'm starting off with something positive here. The combination of the watercolour splatter with the ghostly fog through the trees? *chef's kiss* Yes. Exactly the kind of thing I want to do more of going forward.

But...I really don't like the rest of the colour selection.
I did a colour comp digitally before starting.
I hated it.
Then I followed that colour comp exactly.
And hated it.
*surprised Pikachu face*

It was far worse yesterday but I spent a few hours today working on it some more, so I'd consider it at least salvaged. At this point my feelings on it are 'meh' rather than full on bitterness. So that's an improvement. I think my issue is that I did the background first (which normally helps me keep all other colours cohesive), but then I loved the background with the uncoloured character so much that everything else I did to it felt like making it worse. In addition to that, even though the background is a mix of all three colours, all of the colours on the character felt like they clashed with it. I didn't think that was possible with such a limited palette. I had her less saturated initially and it looked even worse, so I brightened her up to make it at least a little better.

Funnily enough, I think it's the background that makes me dislike the piece. If she was on just the white paper I think I'd be happier with how she turned out, but she doesn't fit with the background. Lesson learned.

Anyway.
Bitterness aside.

One of the things that I didn't plan for but was really cool to work with is that the three colours I chose happened to have very different pigment weights. What that meant is that when I mixed the three colours and did a wash, they'd sink into the paper at different rates and cause hue shifts. Yellow was heaviest. It sank almost immediately. The pthalo green (blue shade) was the mid-tier, so as it dried it would create a green border at the edges while the center stayed far pinker due to the magenta floating the longest. This also meant that if I mixed a bunch of colour and then let it sit for a few minutes while I worked, I'd tend to use the upper layer that was more pink-green and then when I got to the end of it and mixed it all up again the "new" paint was significantly yellower.
All of this was really cool and showed up even better on hot press paper (which I was doing swatches on), but also wasn't something I planned on working around so made things trickier.

In the end I think the biggest issue I have with this piece is I made myself work on it. I didn't want to, but I pushed through "to get back in the swing of things," and as a result I didn't make the best decisions I could have because I wasn't motivated to find the best options.

So maybe in 12 years I'll do it again with a clearer head.

Until then, I love the line art and I love the background, so I can at least go forward with that.

Done with Liquitex Acrylic Ink (Yellow Medium Azo, Pthalo Green [Blue Shade], and Magenta) on Artist Loft watercolor paper.
8"x10".

Original: