UY Book 23: Bridge of Tears hardcover signature plate

Stan Sakai (Usagiguy) wrote:January 6th, 2009
It's been a full month since I last posted but I've been busy catching up on deadlines, went on a couple of trips (one with artist Alex Nino), and celebrated Christmas and New Year.
I did a couple of color pieces last week. This one is for the UY Book 23: Bridge of Tears hardcover signature plate.
For a step-by-step look at this drawing, look under the cut.
Rather than the usual battle pose, I wanted to draw just the opposite--Usagi as a weary warrior. I usually do these color pieces on 5-ply strathmore bristol 500 series, but I found a piece of 2-ply illustration board and used that. The figure was drawn in pencil, then inked with a Koh-i-noor Art Pen using Badger Black Opaque ink. The original art is about 8x11". Click on the images for a better look at them.
The figure was masked, then the background was roughly painted with watercolor using a flat, sable-haired #10 brush. My palette usually tends to run to the cooler colors--gray blue and gray greens--but I wanted this one to run warmer. I mixed yellow with a touch of purple.
Here's the drawing with the mask peeled off.
I toned the kimono and hakama using a blend of turquoise and Prussian blue.
Usagi is finished with turquoise mixed with red and orange--a darker tone for the hakama and very diluted for the white areas. A blend of turquoise and yellow was used for his sword hilt.
Orange, yellow, and white cel vinyl was used to indicate the grass. White was also used for highlights.
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