Hello everyone!

Due to time restraints this past week, today’s post will be slightly shorter than the usual post, but will not disappoint!

When we last left of from the Sketch of the Week, I had done some concept drawings for a new piece I plan to do in ink. Well today is going to be start of it!

I ended up landing on a theme of what I would personally call a thematic encounter between 2 civilizations, the Spanish and Incas. My first basic plan compositionally was to make it clear as to what civilization is being presented and it being vertical helps signify the heights of the Andes mountain range. This would be supplemented with a clear hierarchy between the 2 opposing figures. These foreigners are climbing and looking up at the Emperor and his realm while still looking as if they pose a threat by cropping out the Incan warriors from the composition. I feel there maybe be some minor changes but overall this will be what the final composition will look like.

Besides that I had made a breakthrough moment with gouache as well. I sort of just went off the hip without a reference for this one which ended up helping it become such a success so I can put more of my attention on the medium. The key to gouache and any watercolor I found by making this one is that it is crucial to regulate the amount of water you use and by doing so you must always be conservative when I comes to strong pigments. Previous attempts would almost always lead to some tearing due to the paper buckling or eroding but this one met the perfect balance.

Again, apologies for the shorter post today but hopefully I can lead this off into something great before my semester begins. Have a great week!