Art Step by Step: Cosette

I always start with a piece of watercolor paper. This particular piece is small, about 11 x 14 which is very small for me. I usually do pieces that are around 22 x 30. I prefer to use 300 lb arches watercolor paper hot or cold pressed. All depends. The hot press is much smoother but I press down very hard with my colored pencils so this paper sometimes won't hold up as well.

The heavier paper the better. Cosette was done on very thin watercolor paper but she was meant to be a quick piece for me. If I do something on small paper I am only planning to spend a few days tops on it. Bigger paper can take me a month.

1. So start by sketching out your idea lightly with pencil. There are times I will add watercolor first, it all depends on that particular piece. The pencil sketch does not need to be perfect. Your just getting a rough idea.

2. Now I usually choose a colored pencil to shade my picture in to get a better idea of where the lighting will hit and where shadows will fall on the piece. I use a colored pencil such as a black, dark gray, darker brown etc because if you darken with a regular drawing pencil the lead will not blend well with the wax of the colored pencil later. Pencil lead smears easily but it is very hard to get rid of when you need to and you cant cover it up with white colored pencils or erase it later so use a regular pencil as little as you can.

On this piece I shaded with black. You do not need to press super hard but not overly light. This step just takes practice. Once you start to add color you will learn what works best for you on this step.

3. Time for color! Now I start to shade in color to my piece. Warning- the art piece will look like a big mess for about 80% of the time you work on the piece. Sometimes things needs to look really bad before then can look really good. Don't ask me why that's just the way art is. I almost always do skin bases with a jade green from prismacolor. On that note prismacolored pencils are really the best to use but the led breaks very easy so keep a good sharpener close by and buy more of a color then you think you will need. I use electric sharpeners. They do chew up a lot of the pencil quicker then a hand held sharpener but they can sharpen in a way that makes the lead stronger and for me that is a must.

Shade in anywhere you will have skin with the Jade green. Press down a bit harder then your first coat of the black colored pencil you used.

4. Next I add new colors to the skin. My staple colors for the skin are:

Sometimes I will also incorporate colors like sand or cloud blue along with a few others. It all depends on the particular piece you are doing. If I want to have a lot of light and warmth the sand pencil along with some warm pinks etc. will be pulled in to use and if I'm going for a colder piece or a darker piece I will pull in the cloud blue more and add the sky blue light over the jade green starting to press harder.

Follow your shadows. The reason for shading in with the black in your second step is so that you can clearly see where to shade with the rest of your colors. Open area that is not shaded will be light colors. Skin will follow like this-black-jade green- sky blue light- and then shade in some areas with the pale sage and grayed lavender. Now you will add white to all of the lighter areas not shaded in. Then add the beige over everything and press down hard. The beige will look very dark at first as you can see on the shoulder but once you add white over the top it will tone down as you can see on her chest neck and upper arm. The beige along with the other colors can keep being added while you are working the piece. Your paper will feel like a waxy silk if you are doing this correctly and will become very shiny. White is always added to the lighter areas over everything to brighten the skin. Yes all of this was done just for this small section.

5. Now, start to bring in your sky blue light and the cloud blue and shadow over the skin everywhere finishing the skin for a moment. You can see below the blue shadows around Cosette's face and so forth. I also took a soft pink to her lips. Does not what pink this will be changed soon.

Now onto the dress. I used:

You have to just use the colors you like here. Keep in mind the type of piece you want to create. If you want something with a darker or colder feel you won't use many colors such as warm yellow, oranges or bold pinks and so forth. Stay in the cooler color family and the more earth toned color family. I try to use more earth toned shades of all colors regardless because if you just take a super bold primary color it just never seems to work right for me. Your piece will often look very cheap with these colors.

Now start to shade in the dress using the same method as before. Always go dark to light and the light colors go everywhere including the lighter areas of your piece. Keep pressing down hard and yes your hand will hurt. Don't forget white to highlight your brighter areas. You do not always have to highlight with white as I said earlier it all depends on the piece but this is a darker colder piece so white works great.

This photo below shows how I use the darker brown first before i use the other colors. I used light umber and chocolate here.

6. Now, for her gloves I used the same blues as earlier and followed the same method. I also incorporated some dark grays for shading. I used the same blues to shadow her eyes a bit more and then used the sky blue light and Copenhagen Blue and NON-Photo Blue as well.

The hair is done using the chocolate and light umber along with the eyebrows. I jump around a lot on my piece. This helps to keep me from getting bored and helps me to pull the piece together well. I also added a warm pink to her lips but as I said earlier don't worry to much about this because it will drastically change later using paints.

7. The only change I did here was finish the rest of the dress incorporating colors from her gloves and corset top. I also added a bit of a warm soft pink to her cheeks and lightened her eyes and lips.

8. Now the art piece is starting to come together. Here I added some lighter shades to the hair such as the sky blue light, cream, sage green and grayed lavender. This really makes the hair pop. I also filled in the flowers on her hair with the same pinks on the corset in her dress. I then took my black colored pencil and started to outline her eyes and parts of her dress. This will really help the piece to pop out and add some dimension.

9. Now it's time to start the piano work.

For the piano you are still following the same method. I used black and then used the sky blue light and white to shade. I tend to use the same colors over and over because this keeps your piece flowing and helps to keep it from looking to busy, cheap or gaudy.

On the piano book I used cream, white, sky blue light, sage green and some of the beige rose.

This just shows further work on the piano below. If you are creating the correct texture you will have glares when you take a photograph of the piece. This is because when you press down so hard the paper becomes silky smooth and shiny.

10. I know it seems like everything just finished suddenly but I assure it has not. It's now time for the watercolor paints. What I did was use my watercolors to start to fill in the sky, moon and trees along with the rest of the background. I always do my backgrounds in watercolor. It gives a different texture and I don't think your main subject should have the same texture as your background. The background can be less perfect and more whimsical and light. I used some dark and light blue in the sky and then some of the same blues and browns in the trees. Next I broke out some of my acrylic paints and started to highlight the dress and piano using white blended with some blues and then blended with some greens and purples all separate. I also took a sharpie black marker and filled in the music book with notes. The flowers around her hair needed some paint to make them pop out so I used some deep reds and purples for this along with some white. I also took my white and added some stars into the background.

11. Now for the final touches and my favorite part. These steps will really make a difference and finish the piece. Ok now what I do is pull out my soft and oil pastels, more of my acrylic paints and makeup, yup makeup!

First I take my paints and really water down the colors-I mean super watered down. Next I add the water down shaded to areas I want to see darker or light on the piece such as the dress and the sky. I use very deep blues and teals along with some purples and grays. You will be amazed how this looks when you start to add this to your piece. Keep an old dry washcloth by you to help remove some paint if you put on too much watered paint. I use this to tone down the moon until it almost disappears and I toned down the stars. Once this is dry go in with the oil pastels and add a very, very small amount to some of the areas you wish to be shaded some more and then blend with your finger or a paper towel pressing hard.

Now take the soft pastels and use the edge to shade the moon back in. I also added some soft browns around this to help create a nice glow. Make sure to come out gradually on the inside to keep the moon looking real. A crescent moon outlined looks like a crescent moon outlined. See my mermaid Venus done years ago. Big difference!

Last time for makeup. Mostly you will use eye shadows and blush along with some lipstick. I know this sounds crazy but it works so well and will set into the piece so unless you are trying to rub the front of the piece for some crazy reason when it's done the makeup will stay on just fine, it works a lot like the pastels.

I take deep maroon pinkish shadows-non shimmery and take a small make up sponge on a cue tip and start to smear this around Cosette's eyes and cheeks and lips. I also take some warm skin toned powder colors and blend this all over her body. I will keep working this way until i feel like her makeup is done. Pretend you are doing your own makeup. This really is a cool trick. I also add some deep purples to the flowing fabric in the background and then as final touches I get out my acrylic paints one more time and add a few tiny glares to her lips and some more green to her eyes. I also take some white eye shadow and add glows around the stars and the moon along with some sparkles in the dress.

I don't follow the same steps on every piece, it all depends on that particular piece.
Now sign your name and voila!

Give your piece a name- I tend to give my pieces actual name I like. I love plays and decided to name this piece off of Les Miserable's Cosette.

I will add some photos of the actual supplies I used soon.

Warmest,
Christine