"The Grandfather Tree" Details

The Grandfather Tree | Watercolor, Ink + Copic SPEEDPAINT

Twitter photo of my grandpa and his piece!

The video is just to some nice music, because I was getting emotional every time I tried to record it so here are the details for this picture!

I used my Van Gogh watercolors for a majority of this piece, which was what I wanted to challenge myself with. I'm so used to my normal media that I wanted to branch out. I'm REALLY happy with how it all turned out, too, so that's good. I was really trying to do most of the shading with watercolors since I'm so new to them and I'm trying to experiment more. And I wanted a softer look for this piece and watercolors are good for that. I originally was going to do a winter scene but I figured out that might be depressing looking and I wanted it to be happy! So I wanted to use a lot of warm colors with a few cool places BUT that ended up not working because I have no self control haha. And I never really planned the background so I was working with nothing and didn't really know what to do with it. I also tried to use all that color theory knowledge I've been learning in college and I really like how it worked out. I challenged myself to put at least one layer of watercolor all over the paper before jumping in with Copics, because I feel I'm becoming too comfortable with my markers. CHALLENGES! Also I tried to make it look like sunlight was coming through some leaves and it turned into some sort of impressionistic style. I promise I'm not an impressionist painter that's just what's kind of happened in my last two paintings, haha.

After the watercolor I went in with my Copic Markers and added some shading to the lighter parts of the buck and the background to give it more depth. Then, after I was happy with the Copic details, I went in with my Speedball India Ink and dip pen and outlined the Twisty Tree. I wasn't sure if I wanted to outline the deer or not, so I did the tree first and decided not to because it would look more realistic instead of cartoony. And I think it gave a nice interest to it. Then I went in and added line thickness to the tree with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen that I recently bought (I might do a review soon) and added white details with my Sakura GellyRoll pen (:

I got it matted and framed at Hobby Lobby in just a simple light-colored wood frame and a "warm white" mat. That's all folks, hope you have a nice week! <3