Everyone After About an Hour

This is a pan out of where everyone was after about an hour. By the time I was getting to my bubble background with the white paint, everyone else was just about to finish up their backgrounds. I wish I would have video taped this just to see the difference in everyone's process. It's so amazing to see.

Jumping Around

While the white was still drying I was jumping around from section to section to add something new. At this point, I'm working on the celebrity balloon heads.

Blue Bubble Background

The blue bubble background is complete after giving it an outline.

Step 1: Background

Getting that radial gradient down! the background is usually a "race against time" and an upper body workout. With acrylic paint, you can't work with it if it's dry so, when blending and creating a gradient, you need the paint to stay wet. Sometimes, I will use a paint retarder but sometimes I just stick with a good amount of paint and water. Don't use too much water or then, you'll have to wait longer for it to dry and possibly use more layers. It usually takes me 2-3 layers of the same thing to make it solid (when it comes to the background).

Step 1: Background, part 1

The general color of the gradient fade of the logs are used. Here, there are 3 layers of this strategy applied to get a good, solid layer. The object is to get rid of loose, painterly brush strokes.

Step 3: Background, part 3

The lighter colors, the highlights, help give a relief. Relief is used in this way to mean, height or suspension. It is a term mostly used in sculpting. Different thicknesses and transparencies are used to create this look.

Step 6: finishing touches

So, the only thing that was added was gold splatter to the background. I needed to put a mask on top of the actual skull to protect it.

Step 1: Background

A good reference is picked out first. After that, handling the background comes next. Getting the right gradient makes all the better.

Step 2

The Background: This was done using a layer of black, not totally covering the shape of the bullet. A layer of splatter was also added, reserving the space for the bullet, as well. This splatter technique was done with more action, using the motion of throwing a ball with the paint brush.