Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Bard in Black & White



The black and white scratchboard work of Shakespeare and his woodland friends is done. I've scanned and "cleaned" it in Photoshop. Now, it gets printed onto watercolor paper and then I'll traditionally color with watercolor and dyes. I'll post a detail of the finished art later this week.

2 comments:

Michael Lukyniuk said...

This is a beautiful composition. The colour details bring out the scene even better (with the moon looking into Shakespeare's Globe Theatre).
I wonder when you print onto watercolour paper if there is a special process to prevent the ink from running when you apply watercolour paints? Another question would be: why not paint it all in Photoshop?

Claudia said...

Thanks for your comments- the moon makes it for me- isn't it always one thing that does (or at least you hope that is the case)?!

I've been printing my black and white scratchboard line work via my HP (2100- a dinosaur) laser printer onto watercolor paper with good luck for years- However, when I replaced this printer last year, my new printer has had issues with the toner not being stable at all on the same watercolor paper surface (flaking off, disolving when I ran a wash over it, etc). I am back to my old printer while I look at other options.

I've tried painting in Photoshop and I don't know if I have the patience to learn to use it well enough to get the results I want. Others probably could! I don't mind mixing hi-tech and low-tech methods together; it gives my eyes a break from the screen. And, call me old-fashioned, I like the dipping and dabbling in real paint and water!

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