Adding color to the skin-tone for "Honeybee" by Amy Crehore
Here, I took some sap green and mixed it with cadmium red light on my palette. I brushed it into the shadow areas on the girl's skin as well as on the little guy's. Then, I let it sit for a while and dry a bit. Later, I went back in with my white paint, mixed with a bit of yellow, and dabbed that color into the highlight areas. I used a small brush (sable) and began to dab and blend the whole thing (wet on wet). She's looking a bit too tan and I will probably be going back to add a white glaze to her skin-tone. But, the main thing is, I am building up paint layers toward a rich finish. I want the main figures to be more defined and the things in the background to be less so.
About 3-4 years ago, I began to draw strictly from my imagination. Before that, I created paintings for many years by piecing together ideas and images using reference materials. My new drawings were very crude at first, but I practiced everyday. Now I just use my memory and feel things out. My most important tool is my eraser! It's my own made-up language of characters and icons interacting in a made-up world. Don't ask what it all means. It's visual. I never think about "style" or what's "in". I just try to be myself. It comes from the heart. Once in a while, I will get stumped and need to look up a picture of something or look in the mirror to see how a pose might go, but mainly it's more about the design of a picture. How the whole thing fits together. A story evolves out of the design when I draw. The pose of the main figure is all about angles, shapes and such. The girl's hands and feet are usually connected to the other figures somehow. Unity. Connections. Echoing patterns in a mysterious world. Creating entertainment for you and me.
Here's a nice flickr set: Japanese prints (Mando Maniac) 
