🛡 The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker 🗡

044 The Legend of Zelda, The Wind Waker 

This was another request from Adam to help decorate our Games Room.  

The Wind Waker was released for the Nintendo Gamecube and then later a high-definition remastered version was released on the WiiU.  

It is another in the classic gaming series of Legend of Zelda.  

So I started off by painting the entire A4 sized box canvas in a light blue and allowed it to dry.  I then did my usual technique of cutting out the picture and drawing around it onto the canvas.  After I had painted the light blue background, this layer (even when dry), felt sticky and tacky.  It was a warm day today with bright sunshine and I am wondering if that was something to do with it.  It made it a little difficult to draw on.  I don't think it was the type of paint used as it was the Pebeo Studio acrylic mixed with Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic which are two that I have never had a problem with before.  Maybe it just needs a little longer to dry thoroughly 🤔

Above you can see the original on the left and mine on the right so far.  The boat has only been painted in base colour at the moment and there is a lot of detail to go on top of this so please don't judge it as yet.

I am on the 'Colouring In with Base colours' stage upon which a lot of detail will be added later.

The 'Colouring In with Base Colours' is going pretty well I think.  I don't feel 100% happy with the way the Wood on the boat looks.  Maybe it will really wake up when more is coloured and detailed up.  Adam is very happy with how it is looking so far so it can't be too bad.  What I must must try not to do is lose hope and give up on it.  With copying a picture like this, it does end up looking different to the original.  It is my version of it so don't put that pressure on yourself.  

Have now made a start on Link

A close up of a finished Link

Am now working on the boat which is apparently called the King of Red Lions

🐘 Elephants on the Plains

036 Elephants on the Plains

This project has been done in exactly the same way as my 'African Savannah' that I finished at the end of May and I have even used the same tree template I made then.  I am hoping that the 'African Savannah' piece will be sold in the Charity Sale at the Hobbycraft store in Newbury so I made a similar piece for my own collection or to sell elsewhere.  It was still experimental as I wanted to see how similar to my original I could get it.  Bearing in mind that I wanted to make it physically different everything else is pretty close.  If I do manage to sell the four that have been donated, and I hope I do, I could quite easily do them again for maybe other charities too.

So of course, the first thing to do here was the taping of the border and then the Sun.  We need to make sure that a piece of canvas that is sun-shaped is kept pure white so that it can stay the nice bright focal point of the piece.  It would be no good painting the sky and then trying to put white or yellow over it, as the orange and reds would just show through.  I used the same technique as last time drew around a 5p piece and carefully trimmed around it.  I then placed it on the bare canvas where the sun will be.

After painting in the sky using Violet, Red, Orange and Yellow paints (making sure of course that the brightest part of the sky was nearest to the dot) it was time to allow it to dry and then remove the dot.  It can be a little tricky to find the edge and also you don't want to scuff your beautiful sky.  I did end up doing that on this one and had to touch it up, but you just need to take a little care and have patience.  I still think using the corner of a craft knife works well.

On this piece I painted the outer edge of the circle Yellow and the rest was white.  I couldn't remember exactly what I did last time.  But comparing photos now, I painted it all white last time and I think it looks better that way too.

Next I got my templates ready.  The Tree was reused from the 'African Savannah' and I found a picture online of a Mother and Baby Elephant.  Perfect.

The picture above shows them taped into position ready to draw around.

And now it is time to remove the templates and fill in all the lines.  I used Winsor and Newton's Mars Black for this with a few drops of Daler Rowney Flow Enhancer mixed in.  This photo was taken while colouring it in.

🔺 Geometric Rainbow Pattern of Triangles

 

029 Geometric Triangles

I have finally completed this bright and colourful experiment.  I love how such a simple design has made such a colourful impact.  The colours and brands I used are listed below, starting from the centre.

1. Winsor & Newton Galleria - Mars Black
2. Pebeo Bottled Matt Acrylic Paint - Brick Red
3. Pebeo Bottled Matt Acrylic Paint - Blackcurrant
4. Pebeo Bottled Matt Acrylic Paint - Fushia
5. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Violet (450)
6. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Ultramarine (123)
7. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Indigo (127)
8. Pebeo Studio Acrylic High Viscosity opaque - Cyan (49)
9. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Coeruleum Hue (130)
10. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Emerald (335)
11. Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic - Leaf Green (355)
12. Pebeo Studio Acrylic High Viscosity opaque - Jaune (48)
13. Pebeo Studio Acrylic High Viscosity Transparent - Magenta (50)

The Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic needed a Flow Enhancer to make it a bit more workable.  I used Daler Rowney's Flow Enhancer and even then it needed 2 coats to give a good covering.

👑 HRH Charles, Prince of Wales

028 HRH Charles, Prince of Wales

Artists notes:  Really very pleased with the outcome of this one.  He was hard work but I think I have got him as good as I am going to get him!

Here's how I did it

So going back to my Heirs to the British Throne Collection and my challenge of painting a public Figure, as I think I'll always need to practice drawing and painting Human Beings.

The beginnings of Charles, The Prince of Wales and first in line to the British Throne.  It is using my usual technique of printing out the photo and then using it as a cutout template.  This photo shows that I have finished the background and I am now ready to work on the template.  Here is the Original Photo.

Stock Photo

Looking good so far.  The darker reds in the face may seem a little exaggerated but that tells me when I am looking at it extremely closely where darker areas need to go.

These are the colours used for facial skin colour.  

From Left: Winsor & Newton Galleria 'Raw Sienna' 552, Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic 'Titanium White' 011, Daler Rowney Graduate Acrylic 'Naples Yellow' 634, Winsor & Newton Galleria 'Mars Black', Pebeo 59ml 'Soft Skin' & 'Pink'

I spent the afternoon working on Prince Charles again and it is so close to completion now.    Though in every project there is always a problem area and with this one, it is his mouth.  I keep getting it wrong.  I honestly thought I had finished it today but I knew it needed better inspection this evening.

There is certainly improvement in the rest of the painting it literally is just the expression made by the mouth.  On looking closely at this photo I think I need to start the alterations in his cheek on the left hand side.  I have the smile line going up in a diagonal direction but I think it needs to have a little corner in it.  Do that first and see how it changes the expression if at all.  I think they are really small changes that are needed, but they're the ones that make the biggest impact!