"What the heck are color studies", you ask? Well, for those who aren't illustrators already, here is a briefing in the stages that are commonly used to produce a color painting:
1. thumbnail sketches
2. gather necessary reference materials, shoot photo reference
3. rough drawing
4. final drawing
5. color studies
6. prepare painting surface and all of that sort of thing
7. create final painting
I don't intend to bore you with thumbnail sketches or reference shots or any of that... well... ok maybe just one photo of my model for Dr. Ferretstein himself. This is my own little buddy, Icarus. Lucky for me he likes to stand on his hind legs a lot:
Yep, these are some of the photos that I reference when I am drawing Dr. Ferretstein. The markings that Ferretstein has are borrowed from my dear old buddy, Frodo, who sadly passed away in '07.
This is the "Vitruvian Ferret", I based it on Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, and I also wrote all of the text. It is a little hard to read in this JPG, but its written from a ferrets perspective if he could contemplate his own existence.
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Ferrets are mammals of the type ‘Mustela putorius furo’. We are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. We have a long and slender bodies covered with brown, black, white, or mixed fur. The height of a standing ferret is about eleven paws tall from the top of his head to the bottom of his hind feet, which translates to about fifteen to twenty inches tall with a tail that measures about five inches long. We are light and lithe, weighing between one and a half to four pounds. Among our many habits, we are obligate carnivores and we are also crepuscular. We are territorial, but we are also quite social. And yes, it is true that we have an eye for treasure.
The ferret body is so designed by nature that the face, if viewed from the front, is one-eighth of the ferrets whole height. If viewed from the side, a ferret's muzzle is one paw width in length, between the corner of the eye and the edge of the nostril. Also, the ear is one paw width from the back corner of the eye to the base of the ears. The length of an ear is equal to one paw and the distance between the eyes is equal to one paw width. So it is that our heads are two and a half times as long as they are tall. The length of a ferrets legs are one-eighth of the ferrets height. A ferrets center of gravity can be found five-eighths from the top of his head. Ferrets have a dynamic quality inherent in their physiology. The placement of the ferrets low center of gravity and length of body allow for kinetic energy to be accessed most efficiently and quickly. I endeavor to understand wether if it is merely that the spirit of a ferret is galvanized by our most fortunate body design or if it is that our bodies are the manifestation of an ancient and fundamental component of the spirit of our intelligent and fearless race, perhaps it is both.
– Dr. Nicola Ferretstein
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I did 3 color studies for this piece, but I was pretty sure I knew which one the folks at Gamers Realm would go for. Turns out I was right, but was good to give them a few variations.
This is the one they chose (keep in mind that these are ROUGH images, created for the sole purpose of finding the right color combinations) the final images will be painted far finer. I should also explain how I do them, its easy enough, I print out my sketches on plain old paper then I paint over top with gouache paint. I don't use oils because that would take unnecessarily long to dry, I don't use watercolors (though I probably could) because gouache is more opaque and it does not mix the printer ink into it as much, besides the colors appear as much like oil as a water based paint can. Acrylics? Eek, well that is the one medium I don't do so well with so I try not to use it at all.
These are the alternates that they did not choose. They are ok.
Thats it for today folks. Check back soon to see Dr. Ferretstein's awesome Diving Bell!
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