- "Tale of the Tail" - 3rd Scan
I've added watercolor. I forgot to touch up a couple of the black stripes on the right side of mom's tail before I scanned the drawing, so they're still too light. Next steps will be scratching to bring up highlights, and color pencil to add details. The last step will be adding CJ's whiskers. Click for a little time-lapse video of this stage and the last two. - Chrome Rising 4
I thought the drawing was finished at this point, but the contrast between the hood and the background was bothering me! See the next image for further discussion. - Scotia 1
This is sweet Scotty girl, Scotia. I haven't done any scratching yet, this is just the transfer onto the scratchboard. 7" x 5", from my own reference photo. - "Tale of the Tail" - more color
More color, but CJ's back still needs color added. - Chrome Rising 2
She's lookin' pretty shiny at this stage! The lower section is the most tedious - where I worked to get a smooth, light value (but not pure white) on the hood of the car. I used an eyebrow tattoo needle to pull off some of the black (the rougher parts that are still visible) and a #16 X-acto blade to carefully blend the rough pattern. You can see the final value in the upper left section of the hood. - "Tale of the Tail" - 2nd Scan
FInished with the first round of scratching. The drawing is much lighter, but also softer, & it has more detail than the previous stage. Even though it's so much lighter, I can still see my color "roadmap". Next... adding more color... - Chrome Rising 4 - Detail
Detail of stage 4 - Scotia 6
Scotia's portrait with scratching to soften the ink I added in the previous stage. Also new: highlights in her eyes! - Scotia 3
Update on Scotia's portrait. That large black blob area needs to be scratched... - Chrome Rising 1
Early stage of this one, plenty left to do at this point, but I was happy with how it was going. 6" x 6" scratchboard drawing of a 1941 Cadillac hood ornament. From my own reference photo. - Scotia 7
Scotia's portrait with watercolor added to her fur & nose. Nearly finished at this point, but it needs some fine-tuning here and there, and to be a bit darker overall. - Chrome Rising - Final
"Chrome Rising" - 6" x 6" scratchboard. 1941 Cadillac hood ornament, from my own reference photo.
Scratched with a #16 X-acto & an eyebrow tattoo needle (on the hood of the car), re-inked (stippling) with a technical pen.
I was mostly happy with the previous version of this drawing, but the contrast between the hood & the background in the corner bothered me. It pulled the eye right off the edge. I re-worked the hood to make it darker and now it reads better. I stippled with a technical pen to make the entire hood darker, and then scratched to blend & add highlights.
Part of the reason I didn't anticipate the issue in the corner is that I usually erase the backgrounds in Photoshop to save printer ink and avoid distraction from the subject. This a case where that worked against me, because in the photo, the background was white, so I wasn't seeing that contrast between the hood & the solid black background until I was finished. See the next 2 images - my reference photos... - Chrome Rising - Reference Photo 2
To give me a better idea of how to re-work the hood, I took that section of the reference and made it darker. That brought up some details that I could incorporate. - Chrome Rising - Reference Photo 1
Here's the original reference photo. You can see the hood was white, but without a dark background, the contrast situation wasn't distracting. - Chrome Rising - detail of process on hood
Close up of the eyebrow tattoo needle. It has multiple sharp pins that create a linear scratch pattern.