Thursday, May 05, 2005


The finished color piece for "Tea With Mrs. Rosenberg." The painting was done in digital watercolor on tan colored canvas layer. In between the canvas and the top pencil drawing, I inserted another floating layer. On that middle layer I used digital pastel to give some opaque color. The brown pencil layer was kept separate and available for refinement or tweaking, and also allowed the original pencil drawing to be on "top" of any coloring underneath.

4 comments:

Shawn Escott said...

Awesome work! and with a wacom!! sweet. I tried it a couple times and need more practice.

Neil W said...

Shawn is absolutely correct, beautiful work. At the risk of sounding like a "yes man" I also agree with your comment on the wacom just being another tool and not cheating. I felt the same way when I first started using an art projector to blow up my sketches to the final size I wanted for my painting. Friends (or so they call themselves) gave me tons of grief on that one but you know what? Norman Rockwell used one on every painting he ever did according to his autobiography. He said he used to rush and put it away when friends would come calling but he saw it for the useful tool that it was and continued to use it throughout his career and by golly so will I. Anyway didn't mean to ramble on. Again, love your work and congratulations on the latest books success.
Neil

Mo Manning said...

Thanks, Shawn and Neil! Neil, when I was a young teen, Norman Rockwell was my inspiration. For years, though, I thought he drew from his head and I was determined to do so also. I spent YEARS trying to perfect the human figure so I could draw without reference. I admit I was disappointed when I did discover he used a projector -- until I had the great pleasure of viewing some of Rockwell's original work and was left with nothing but awe for his extraordinary drafting skill, and his masterly composition and use of oilpaint! :)

Andy J Smith illustration said...

I saw this piece on your website! It's a real beauty! You do a great job with both sculpting form and with your choice of 'camera angles'. Seems like you always choose the most appropriate (and interesting) point of view for your compositions!

Very cool!

-Andy