My process
1. Stretching my paper: All paintings start on cotton, 140 pound cold-pressed Arches watercolor soaked and stretched over stretcher bars (like a canvas). As the paper dries, it becomes taut like a drum head. Then I tape off the edges and start painting.
2. Take photos: Since giant robots are so rare, I have to take photos of stand-ins to figure out funky angles and foreshortened limbs. Which painting did I use these for???
3. Make a digital study: I compile my reference photos and sketches on an ipad, where I work out the composition, lines, colors and shading. Then I print the lines out huge and transfer them to the watercolor paper.
4. Tape the edges: Underneath the neat mats and frames is an equally neat but natural looking edge. It's super satisfying to remove the tape when I'm done painting- usually my kids help me with this part.
5. Mix colors: I only use three colors: red, yellow and blue. The blacks, browns, and everything else are made by mixing.
For the majority of the paintings, I don’t use white paint, but instead let the paper color show through to create white or lighter values. That's because the white paint looks opaque and sits on top of the layered transparent colors. It kind of distracts from the relaxing vibe of watercolor.
The exceptions are “Winter,” and a little bit of white for Corrine and Robot Playing for a Rat. And one tiny white dot in the cat’s eye on “Decisions.” But otherwise there's no white paint used.
For the majority of the paintings, I don’t use white paint, but instead let the paper color show through to create white or lighter values. That's because the white paint looks opaque and sits on top of the layered transparent colors. It kind of distracts from the relaxing vibe of watercolor.
The exceptions are “Winter,” and a little bit of white for Corrine and Robot Playing for a Rat. And one tiny white dot in the cat’s eye on “Decisions.” But otherwise there's no white paint used.
6: I mask areas with masking tape and masking fluid. For this one, I had to mask all the robot/animals/tree parts first so I could paint the wood grain without going into the details.