Cinderella

For whatever reason, I was inspired to do a picture of Cinderella. I saw in my head an action scene of Cindy running away from the prince as the clock strikes midnight. I dont know why. Just felt like doing an illustrative type thing. Probably left over from my childhood.

So I searched the internet and found some nice reference photos on deviant art and used my DAZ 3d modeler to get the poses:

from deviant art

created with daz 3d

I had a very specific picture in my mind. After much screwing around with perspective and architecture this is the drawing I came up with:

This is actually a photoshopped version I used to transfer the drawing to a clayboard panel. I had a failed attempt on illustration board that I got a couple of days into before I realized that it was just too flimsy for all the layers of painting and erasing and the biggest pain of all, cutting frisket.

first step sepia ink

The hardest part for me with doing architectural things is making straight lines. I went through hell on the bird lady painting trying to get the gate bars straight. I thought this would be a good opportunity to try a new way. I used pens to make the edges with a ruler hoping that the ink might show through.

second step gouache painting with frisket for straight lines

The gouache, it turns out, is pretty opaque so I couldnt really use the lines for the buliding parts. I tried using frisket to create the marble tiles. The lo tac stuff doesnt stick to the gouache at all. I wanted to try the extra tac but I think I may have gotten the wrong thing by mistake. Anyway, it worked out ok in the end but I will need to practice with it. 

third step background details

I used alternating layers of gouache (with just a touch of the egg emulsion in it) and oil paint. I will have to go back in after this first layer of oil paint dries and do more detail with the gouache and back and forth until it looks right.

Im not sure what this technique would be called. Its not exactly "mische technique" because I am using colored gouache instead of plain white egg tempera. I hate to call it "mixed media" because that has different implications. 

That's where I am now.