Art Blog #23: Doing the Background

This idea suddenly came up after I ate bread this afternoon. Supposedly I long forgot to go back to this page in my sketchbook because I'm too conscious that I might mess up in doing its background. My initial idea for it is to paint it with just red. I'm still debating if ever I'll trace the drawing with pen because most of my pens are gel pens, and their ink does spread even though I didn't apply much pressure on them.

I'm still waiting for the time I can buy a 0.1 or 0.2 pen that I use to trace it all. Since I still don't have that kind of pen, I'll focus first on doing the background, and that's where that sudden idea came in. It's most likely a scrap one from the pages I did from a previous drawing, and with that idea, I started my art project for this afternoon.

Let's start!

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I'm using paint because my markers are already dried out by now. I often used them before because I'm quite lazy, but now that I can't use them, I switched back to paints and brushes. Since it's been a long time since the last time I used them, I soaked them in hot water so that the paint that dried out would somehow come off.

After soaking it, I then proceed to mix the acrylic paint with a little water. I don't usually do this, but since I stored the paint for a long time, there are already clumps inside it. So to avoid using those, I get some of the paint and mix its clumps with water. Some of them dissolved, yet some didn't, so I threw the ones that didn't out.

When I'm done prepping the paint, I proceed to the painting proper immediately. I was really cautious with it because, aside from the fact that I'm not accustomed to the feel of a brush, my hands are also so shaky.

And my greatest fear happened because even though I'm careful most of the time, I got impatient at some point, and so I made a mistake. I tried using water to wipe it clear, but it didn't come off that clean. I'm quite afraid to use sanitizer on it, so I put more pressure on it, hoping it'll come off cleanly this time, yet it's still there! So left with no choice, I opted for my last resort—the sanitizer. I thought it would also wipe off the red paint, but thankfully it didn't, and at last the black paint is gone.

I painted the letters of the character's line one by one, and occasionally, I used sanitizer to clean smudged areas. The painting lasted for almost half an hour before I decided to stop because it's almost time for me to go to church. We need to attend mass at 4:30, and at that time it's already a quarter to 4:00 when I finish the majority of the background. I wanted to fill all of the gaps, but I guess there's still tomorrow—or even next week for that.

Here's the last look before I decided to let it dry for another free time of mine.

A close-up... I'm still struggling with whether I'll ink it or not. Anyway, I still don't have the pen, so I definitely have time to ponder whether my current skill is suitable for inking. Plus, I don't have much confidence yet to do so; that's why for now, while I still don't have the budget to buy a pen and I haven't decide yet on will I ink it or not, I'll really practice until I get better eventually.