The Sleepy Dog

This week I was re-cooperating from the Indian Child project, so I wasn't being very productive during the week until about Friday when it came time for me to do something productive and practice my drawing skills which indeed is when I started thinking about the next project I would tackle head on. I've got to admit, it took me awhile since I didn't really want to continue on the same theme of Indians and such so that I would stay somewhat interesting even though I think the Indian culture is so very fascinating and amazing. However, this time I've been reading up on colleges and information on illustrators and graphic designers and I came across some portfolio requirements on this great school which advised the students to draw animals, not just humans or landscapes. Now, it did also state that they do not appreciate digital paintings as much as they do the regular old fashioned paintings which I do understand but I'm still focusing on mastering the Painter software. So, I went online and searched for 'sleepy dogs' - don't ask me why - and I found a few nice ideas that I thought were good for my purposes. So needless to say, I went head on to sketching something up and began working. 

Alright, so I will just get right to the point. I actually forgot to take some screenshots of vital points in the process but I will do my best to explain them with enough detail that you get the idea. Like always, I begin by taking out a 2B pencil and started sketching a rough outline of shapes and proportions before painting. 

 I was very reckless today, not only did I forget to take screenshots, I also forgot to add a layer for my sketch, so that I could have moved it around if need be. Oh well, fortunately everything worked out well enough. 

Now here are the steps I made and did not document; after finishing my rough outline, I added a new layer on top and began working in black, white and grey before adding color to my image. This is to get the values correct and makes my job more enjoyable and easier to do. I do this grey scale blocking in with a large brush, with the Airbrush again to be exact, and with my opacity set down to 9% by default. After doing this, I flatten the layer and then add a new one. On this new layer, I choose the Paint Bucket Tool and fill it with a solid red color, in this case I used a maroon red variation because I see it in the subject I'm painting. Now I set my layer mode to Soft Light and thus the value painting will show through the red and will look like a 'red wash' over my image. 

Now it's time to get the color palette out and make some action! I created a variation of red, yellow and blue to begin with and I start blocking in the colors in the background and by keeping everything simple and as detail-less as possible. 

After doing this, I begin finessing the background and tightening up the shapes and lines with a smaller brush, still using the Airbrush on opacity of  9%. You still see how fuzzy the whole image, but at the end it (hopefully) come together as I keep reducing the size of my brush to make the needed detail. 

Above I have added some detail to the dog, coffee pot as well as the wooden plank wall in the background. I haven't been able to finish this today, but below you can see where I was left off about two minutes ago:

You can't see much difference except in the background where I have some beginning of a more detailed wall. I do realize the picture is quite corny or cheesy if you will; however the thing that intrigued me was the feeling of the restaurant, I've always wanted to visit one of the run down breakfast/dinner restaurants and I wanted to capture the feeling of it with a light image like this. Besides, sometimes its good to lighten up the mood a bit, am I right? This picture really does remind me of those supposed-to-be funny Donald Duck satires now that I'm really looking at it and not working on it. 

Next week I hope to continue and add more detail to the background and the coffee pot, hopefully I will make it to the dog.. At some point. And well what can I say, I guess that is it for this week - tune in next Sunday to see more progress.