Recently one of my favorite artists, Quadeca, released his fifth album Vanisher, Horizon Scraper. The album follows the story of a sailor’s journey out at sea, ending in his encounter with a sea monster and ultimately meeting his demise. Upon release, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper was presented with a full-length cinematographic movie alongside it. The movie features the album in chronological order, showcasing stunning visuals all throughout. The videographer’s composition and use of color really inspired me to use one of the frames as a reference for this week’s watercolor piece.
As for the materials I used, I started working with 2B pencil on a 6″ x 9″ piece of watercolor paper. Whenever I watercolor, I’m always sure to tape off my edges with washi/painter’s tape. This helps to keep my artwork neat and I don’t need to worry as much about how I would like my piece to interact with the edge. Eventually, I would like to experiment with other ways of dealing with the edges of watercolor paper but that will be for another post! For this piece, I used Koi watercolor (tubes) and waterproof pens. My process involves sketching, lining my artwork, and layering watercolor on top of the piece. Additionally, I use masking fluid to preserve my brightest highlights with no stress. When I sketch from a reference, I often translate various aspects of the original photograph into my own style rather than trying to get as close to picture-perfect as possible.
Both the reference and final product of this piece are shown below.
