Fian Arroyo blog
Fian Arroyo Illustration In An Arts And Culture Magazine
One of my images is in this months The Laurel Of Asheville, the arts and cultural magazine for this area. It is featured in a story about the ZaPow Art Galleries show this Saturday night Whiskers and Wagging Tails featuring art inspired by dogs and cats!. 100% of ZaPow's commission from sales at the opening night on Saturday June 14th at 7:00 PM will be donated to the Asheville Humane Society! So if you are around come on down for some free beer, live music and great art!
New Watercolor And Ink Illustration
Here's the finished watercolor and ink illustration titled "The Catfields and McDawgs" that I posted the line work for last week. It is one of my entries in the Whiskers and Wagging Tails show at the ZaPow Art Gallery in Asheville NC featuring art inspired by dogs and cats!. 100% of ZaPow's commission from sales at the opening night on Saturday June 14th at 7:00 PM will be donated to the Asheville Humane Society! So if you are around come on down for some fee beer, live music and great art! You can order a giclee fine art print from my Shop For Prints section here.
The Perils Of Keeping It Real Chapter 2
The Perils Of Keeping It Real is my journey of getting back into analog art in addition to my digital art.
This is a second go around at the “Catfields and McDawgs”. I wasn’t happy with the watercolor part of the process so I am starting over. I didn't take the extra step the first time and do a color comp...I sooo know better than that. I was too eager to jump into the painting and not planning can be very unforgiving with watercolors. I need it done by this week to enter it into the Dog And Cats Show at the ZaPow gallery in Asheville NC next week. Now I have to retrace the sketch onto the watercolor block, re-ink the drawing then paint the masking fluid over the painting to begin painting the background. What I would give to have a command Z or undo with watercolors. Analog takes a much tougher toll on my patience than digital work.
Step By Step Art Progression For The Grand Vizier's Garden Party
Here's the step by step art progression of my new fantasy art piece "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party". It is my interpretation of a Pink Floyd song. Check out my descriptions for each step below. If you have any questions, just post a comment or email me from the Contact Me section of www.fian.com.
These are the tools I used to create "The Grand Viziers Garden Party". They are Arches watercolor block of 30 sheets of 140 lb cold press paper, Winsor Newton watercolors, Pilot Namiki Falcon fountain pen, Pilot Metropolitan animal fountain pen, Noodlers fountain pen, Noodlers ink, Pedeo drawing gum, Winsor Newton Gum Arabic and various brushes.
Rough sketch with doodles from my sketchbook added. Getting our cast of characters into their places. Places everyone!!!
Transferring the sketch to the watercolor paper block. I print out the sketch then rub the back of it with a graphite pencil and trace the image onto the paper.
Starting the inking process. It is always a rush to get to this stage and to make it start to come to life.
The outline inking. The main line work right before the detail comes in. The grand vizier is getting ansy...he wants to see how he will look in color.
Details to the outline inking. The last stage before I apply color...then the real decision making comes into play.
Masking the characters with Pedeo Drawing gum (blueish color) so I can paint the sky with a watercolor wash. Its easier to get a fluid wash without having to worry about getting color into unwanted places.
The sky wash is added....now I'm ready to bring the characters to life.
Starting to add color to the characters. I started with the grand vizier himself and made him a reddish color to make him the center of attention like he always demands.
Bringing more of the characters to life. Bringing this party into full view.
Detail of the painting process. Gotta make sure the Vizier is done right...he's kinda fussy that way.
The finished art. A glimpse into what goes on at The Grand Vizier's place on weekends and what goes on in my head all the time. Enjoy!