Color Keys from the Florida Keys

Hey everyone! 

I just got back from a week-long trip boat trip with my family. Yep, that's right, a boat trip. Do people still do many boating vacations nowadays? Not a cruise ship or anything. I'm talking one-family-two-sails-really-feel-the-waves-underneath-the-hull kind of boating. Anyways, I really enjoyed it. It's a totally different way of of life, and while I'm glad to be back on land, it was fun to try! I now have a much better understanding of what Rat means when he talks about "Simply messing, messing about in boats, or with boats. In or out of em, it doesn't matter" (that's Rat from The Wind in the Willows - though I dearly hope you already knew that). I'm still trying to get all the salt out of my clothes and hair - it's a process. Especially since I won't be going to Ireland this summer, it was nice to have the chance to see a new place, though one of a significantly warmer and more humid nature: the Florida Keys. I've been recently amazed by just how big America is. Even though Florida is still in the states, it definitely feels like a different country compared to Tennessee. The expansive salt marshes, the spanish moss, the decaying rust bridges set over azure salt water - it just all seems so summer-y and adventurous. And this strange nostalgia for the landscape of Florida and the coastal American South (part of the reason why I LOVE Princess and the Frog), was nice to indulge. And indulge I did! Through gazing for hours out of the car window and the boat ... spaces on deck??? Oh and I also did some art. Bet you didn't expect that! ;) 

I brought, as usual, way too many art supplies, most of which I never used. I intended to do watercolor pieces like I did during my Bahamas mission trip last summer, but when I started the first one I kept getting frustrated with the pencil sketch which seemed to predict getting even more frustrated with the watercolor later down the line... so I caved, pulled out the Ipad, and worked almost entirely digitally for the remainder of the trip. The watercolors and gouache were not touched :( I have mixed feelings about the outcome. This was my first big trip with The Pad, by the way. I felt like the digital nature of the art was able to capture the luminosity and vibrancy of the color and water in way that would have been difficult for me to do with traditional media. And the whole process is just so much easier. I feel more comfortable with it as a medium, I feel more free to experiment, depicting light is quick (lookin at u, multiply and overlay layers), I don't have to wait for paint to dry, and I don't have to mix colors unless I want to. So all that means drawings that look prettier (in my opinion) and I have more time to spend on the actual vacation. (which is kinda the point of the thing)

But, on the other hand, I feel like traditional plein air painting in new and inspiring places is what encourages me to still keep traditional media as part of my skillset. I don't want to be a primarily/exclusively digital artist if I can help it, cause I feel like each time I put serious effort into my traditional work, I make breakthroughs on the digital side as well. Remember that Brother Bear poster? Or perhaps any tree I have drawn in the past year? Those were directly influenced by how I plein air paint with gouache.

It's in the simplification of shading and round shapes in the tree

Traditional media is just cool, and becoming increasingly rare in animation art. In other words, the Disney Archives are quickly becoming something you access through a computer, and not something you hold in you hands and think, "Wow. Milt Kahl drew this. And now I am trying not to spill something on it." I know I'm not going to get better at traditional media if I don't actual try it, fail, succeed, and learn. So part of me was a little disappointed that I didn't risk it on this trip. Plus, using traditional media fosters a greater sense of "place." Knowing that I worked on this piece of paper at this place in the universe makes the art a bit more special than a file that just ends up in Google Drive. Anyways, I digress. You probably didn't come here to listen to me ramble about drawing mediums. Maybe you actually wanted to see some art.

So here's some art.

Sombrero Key Lighthouse

Many, if not most, of these were inspired by what's in animation called "color keys." Popularized by Pixar, these are small paintings which are intended to direct the color of a scene rather than the detail and design. I like to do them because they don't take a lot of time, and if the detail is off, eeeeehhhhh, just shrug and say it's a just a color key/sketch. Actually, don't say that. (personal pet peeve: calling something a "sketch" to lower the bar when in fact, the piece is not "a sketch." Just own it, people. The piece is probably good anyways.) I would love to do color keys professionally some day, but combining them all into a harmonious order called a "color script" seems baffling and something that takes guts.

 Snappers

I actually got to pet this manatee, who lived in a marina and was pretty scarred up

Many of these were also inspired by the art of Louie Zong, a man whose work has become increasingly influential to me over the past several months. His art has a lot of texture to it and good color sense all submerged in a childlike simplicity and innocence which I really appreciate. His work often gets very simplistic but somehow still feels professional ... needless to say I'm a fan, and am trying to incorporate some of his sensibilities into my own art. But at the moment, the most immediate thing you'll notice is quite a liberal use of Procreate's "Splatter" and my modified "Flicks" brushes.

Clownfish, Moon Jellies, and Sandbar Shark

I needed to use a pencil after sooo much digital art. Also, baby gators.

Sleeping Hawksbill Sea Turtle

In Key West, they have wild chickens that roam around town, just doin their thing. I've known several friends who kept chickens, but what surprised me most about the Key West chickens was watching the hens run around surrounded their chicks - back at home you usually just see the adults or mail-order chicks by themselves in a pen. So it was delightful to see these little families where everyone was all together! When I got back home I wanted to make a more stylized piece that reflected this memory (drawing on *heh* the art of Annette Marnat, thanks Naomi Bethel). This took a LOT longer than I expected but was a fun exploration into a new, soft, and even-more-texture-y style.

also took some cues from Audubon's Great American Hen and Young

Although I don't try to pressure myself to draw when I'm on vacation, it's nice when art like this spills out naturally! You may have implied from that statement that drawing often feels like work now, which is true. And although it's good work, work that makes me happy and time fly, I realized that I need to recapture that spirit of play, be willing to let pieces suck, and draw without reference... but that's likely a topic for another day. Be sure to check back here on the Roost for that! A lot is going on on my Instagram too - I'll be posting most of these pictures there and celebrating 500 followers! That's a big milestone, and I'm going to try to focus on being grateful for that rather than envious of 1000... let's see how that goes. ;) As usual, feel free to share Roost posts with your friends if you think they would be helpful. People really seemed to like the only "advice" post I have on here, and I plan on posting a few more tutorial kind of stuff here over the summer, so if there's a specific topic you want me to cover, let me know in the comments. 

Thankful for you guys, your readership, and your support! Hope your summer is off to a great start.

-dh


ALSO Music Recommendation for this week: I've been playing the BotW Hyrule Castle theme frequently to make everything seem more epic, maybe you would like a (Triforce of) Courage boost too? I finished BotW the week before the sailing trip and Man Was It Awesome. Storming the castle is so intense, especially when accompanied by this song. And for those Ambrosia fans out there, know that she participated in the final battle against Ganon! Very cool. Thanks Fujibayashi. More BotW art (and Ambrosia art???) to come during Zeldathon this June 13. 

woah that sounded official