The Barber of Pie-ville

Hi!

It's a shame I haven't been able to post anything in a while, but that's because I've been super busy with work. However, expect to see more frequent updates from me in the future.

So, here's the most recent piece that I've finished. (Well, actually I (always) think I could fiddle with it some more, but I'll step back for it for now) This work was for a sort of poster competition for an opera production called "The Barber of Barkerville", which is an adaptation of Rossini's "Barber of Seville". Haha, so no, not "The Barber of Pie-ville". That was just one of my silly jokes. But, pies do play quite a role in the story!

 

Finished piece

After making several roughs, I was drawn to this concept:

concept sketch

When I was refining the sketch, I separately drew out the two figures.

Rosie, with a note for Al

Al, in his disguise

After, I tweeked the sketch by reworking the pies, adding the town, and some mountain/hills. I scanned all the drawings, then scaled and added the figures into the composition. I printed the re-worked concept at size I as going to be inking and painting in.

pencils

Using a make-shift light table I re-penciled the image on to a sheet of Bristol Smooth paper, and then inked it with micron pens.

inks

Then it was time to paint...

a progress picture

And here's how the coloring ended up, but I wasn't done yet. I felt the green was too strong so I decided to calm the shades of green down in Photoshop.

Adjustments in Photoshop

Finally, I added a subtle paper texture as well. I decided to keep the sky light and simple so that it wouldn't compete with the title of the production. I didn't win the contest, but what can you do right?

close up

Size: 11x17"
Media: Waterproof inks + watercolour + gouache + microns

That's it for now!