Kathryn's pic

My wife has been bugging me for something pretty or cute so that she can hang it in her office. She works in criminal justice and already has my "Justice" Piece hanging there. She fully knows I don't really work in those genres but she gave me leeway with it and demanded something for Christmas. 

She loves raccoons. And she has said that she doesn't mind faeries so I worked on this for a few weeks and delivered it to her on Christmas. Don't tell her but I rather enjoyed the process. 

Here is the rough. (Camera shots so pardon the rather dull images as compared to scanned stuff).

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

Forest critters hanging out together seemed to be "Cute" in my mind and though there are no real monsters depicted, if you ever visit the country these little beasties can be very evil.

And a few process shots.

Here I started inking in the raccoon. Seemed the most logical place to start the process seeing as the raccoon would be the main subject. I wanted him looking directly at the viewer, and I liked his position within a hollow of a tree. I used various photos found on a google search to make sure I got him right. 

Morning sun streaming through the window gives this next one a fun little look. 

Wings and foreground blossoms. At this point I was quite tired of using the brush on the faerie wings, all brush work with a new brush I found at a local art shop. This one happens to be a Windsor Newton Galeria 2. I priced out some of the series 7 brushes and I dont think I am quite ready to put out $30+ dollars on a brush I may ruin. But the Galeria brushes seem to hold the ink (speedball black) very well and are pretty durable. I found that I only had to shape it once after cleaning and it was good to go the next time I picked it up. The series 7's are probably much better but this did the trick. 

I really worked the critters fur here, the way the pelt falls on these things is different in every pic you look at, some have a defined pattern, some not so much, some of their fur looks kind of short and bristly and some long and fluffy. All I really wanted to do was give the impression that the fur was stretched over muscle and bone and I think I accomplished that. I also had to keep in mind the shadows as they fell across the fur. 

Continuing work on the inking. The blossoms were sort of a thought to bring the whole picture together, I could put some in the foreground and some in the background was my initial thought. But as I got going they were detail heavy, and in previous experience I didnt want a lot of detail in the background to distract from the main body of work. The branches I relied heavily on my Frazetta books, and roughed them in with the brush trying to achieve that dark shadowed natural feel to them. Then I used the pen to finish up the light side and and the squiggly details. 

Majority of inking done, just adding in some finishing touches.

I struggled mightily with the faerie's face. I must have inked it six or more times only to use a bit of whiteout and re-do it. I really need to work on my female faces. I just dont find the opportunity to draw females as much as I should. I really have to start some studies on those in the future. There are some masters out there that would have done justice and try as I might I could not channel any of them. I even broke out my old trusty "Making Comics the Marvel Way" and tried to channel some Buscema, alas to no avail. In the end her face is serviceable but not perfect. 

The tree work was very satisfying, I could pretty much just space out and squiggle my way through the details of the tree bark, anything I did seemed to turn out fine. I just had to keep reminding myself where the light was coming from and that alone kept me moving. I spent more time just filling space than usual, but it was brainless for the most part. 

And the final piece, at least as final as this blog will see it. I didnt get an opportunity to scan this one in, as for one I hadnt gotten my new wide format scanner, nor had I time to piece it together in GIMP, before I had to wrap it up and put it under the tree. 

The background got added here, just hinting at the larger forest around these two. I didnt want it to be too complicated, but at the same time, interesting for someone who might study it. I think it gives a feeling of a morning fog or mist rolling through the woods. 

I hope you like this one, it is different from my usual, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Needless to say, the wife loves it and she took it to work and hung it, so I guess that says about all that needs to be said. 

There are a few hidden things in the ink work too, but most of them are personal. Our childrens names, our anniversery year, and someone carved "I Love You" in the tree (that is the most readily recognizable one).

Thanks for looking, comments always welcome.