Jónsi Project Production Diary, Part 4

This painting turned out more like a typical storybook illustration, and I'm not as thrilled with it as I was with the other one--but I love my birds and the mother-wolf running through the trees. I don't have a lot of experience drawing animals, so I'm glad I turned out to enjoy it!

The first thing I did was add a thin wash of coffee to the 'frame' of the painting, giving it a proper storybook feel. I also laid a wash down for the wolf and the Prince's skin, to give them a lifelike glow and colour under the paint I planned to add.

Next I added a grey wash of watered-down Higgins india ink as a base for the wolf and the sky. Not pictured is the second part of this process: I painted the mountains with a wash of Prang blue and blue-green watercolour, mixed with a few drops of Quink and also thinned out with water.

I used black and brown Cretacolor water-soluble pencils for the wolf, and Prang in various saturations for the Prince.

Then I put down a dark layer of Quink for the sky, and added the bleach spray. Because of the grey under-layer, the bleach spots were murky and dim. The trees and magic birds showed up more brightly as a result.

I wanted the birds to be magical constructs instead of real birds, so I gave them a yellow glow with a white heart. Some birds (my favorites *koff*) seem to glow a little brighter.

They are pouring out like the Prince's thoughts and hopes and streaming out into the world... the song goes:

You will survive, we'll never stop wonders
You and sunrise will never fall under
We should always know that we can do anything
Go do!