Dino Day at the Fun Park

I had no idea I could paint so fast! This past weekend brought a new challenge. My agent has been helping me to flesh out my portfolio, and fill gaps in subject matter, particularly with animals and contemporary subject matter. As she continues to show my art to editors, it is becoming increasingly important for those gaps to get filled.....quickly. So this past weekend, I turned around this piece: Dino Day at the Fun Park.

It was challenging to get the piece (from concept to completion) done in just one weekend, but the tight timeline also forced me to get a bit innovative, and to make some departures from my usually style. I really wanted to use bright color, and to focus on getting greater contrast than in my past 4-color pieces. So I applied the paint more thickly than I normally would start off with, and began building up shadows aggressively. Normally, I will paint a piece, and then add some finishing touches in colored pencil. This time, to define forms more quickly and to add texture, I integrated the colored pencil as I painting - going back and forth until the colors were what I wanted. The result is a brighter, more textured look that I am pleased with overall. I also enjoyed the freedom to experiment with paint-pencil color combinations, and plan to continue to explore this technique in future pieces. I also enjoyed being forced to use animal subject matter, and the playfulness that those characters add to the piece.

Hope you all had a fun and creative weekend as well!