Kit Cat and Elliot Hound in Copic Markers
OMG. Seriously. My internet connection was down for three days. A terribly sad state of affairs, I’ll have you know. Yes, I read a book. And finished several drawings, among them the charismatic pair above. (Actually, I don’t know if “finished” is accurate, but close enough.)
An adventure with liquid frisket, is what it was! Many progress pics – scans in fact, with my CanoScan LiDE 700F, if you were wondering – shall illustrate the tale:
Dog Cat Sketch
I have been enjoying a recent enthusiasm for goofy, cartoony dogs. And I have also been trying to add more cats, because people like cats. I like cats, just not as much as dogs. She looks a little sad in this sketch. Perhaps you’ve noticed my clever placement wherein I was not forced to wrestle with drawing paws or legs. But I rather think she looks cute perched up there.
Dog Cat Ink
Dog Cat Color 1
Dog Cat Color 2
Dog Cat Color 3
Starting to show some life with a .5 Copic multiliner outline. The eyes are a tad vacant, which is something I need to work on.
Dog Cat Frisket 1
Ok, the frisket! It is a latex masking medium. So you paint it on, and then paint (or in my case, Copic marker) over it. In the first frisket shot above, I applied a curlique background of frisket, let it dry, then lightly covered the area in one color (Begonia, I believe). I should also note that the frisket dried to virtual invisibility but I could just gauge the shine of it. I decided not to fill the entire background (partly because that’s a LOT of background left).
Dog Cat Frisket 2
While the frisket was still on, I figured I should take advantage of some Copic color blending just around the bodies.
Dog Cat Frisket 3
And then, ta-da! Peeled it off. Note: The best pick up to use is a natural rubber pick-up. The clerk at Dick Blick’s was kind enough to let me know when he saw my frisket purchase. And it did work great, and was kind of cool. It comes right up, and can even be peeled. I didn’t scan it right after I peeled it off, but it was white as untouched paper below. I decided to go over the whole background area with some very light peach and pink.
Kit Cat and Elliot Hound in Copic Markers
The final needed heavier lines, so I used my Copic black marker with the pen tip (as opposed to a multiliner), mainly just for the outside outline for both. Added a few more bits and bobs, not sure if it’s done, but there you have it! Thank you for visiting! Let me know if you have any questions about these things. Oh, and a special shout out to art blogger Leslie White whose lovely paintings employing liquid frisket inspired me to try it. Hooray!
Beautiful, Cindy! I love the ears on your doggy and the eyes don’t look at all vacant! This is wonderful!!
Cute illustration. I have a perfect goofy faced dog who would gladly sit for your portraits. But there’s no way you could get a cat that close to her. Then you would see plenty of claws. And teeth.
Love the background and how you used the cirlces for shading. So cheerful too! Made me smile as we have an orange boy here at our house too!
Hurray for frisket! I don’t actually use it much myself, but there’s something really exciting about peeling it up… It’s just fun! You use it to great advantage here.
This is wonderful! I loved seeing the process. I’m not a huge fan of Copic markers because I can’t get used to the medium. You make it look easy-peasy!
The dog and cat are quite cute. I like the fact that you offset the pair in the drawing. It is fun to experiment with the frisket isn’t it. I love the circle effect that you have created. You can get a slightly yellow frisket which is a little easier to see.
I liked the sheep in the last drawing too. He was very enigmatic.
Yay, Cindy! I think this frisket might come in handy for you from time to time. I have a student in composition class, right now, who is using copic markers. He saw the watercolorist at the table behind him using frisket and asked about it and is going to try this with his markers, as well. Hmmmm. I wonder if there are more techniques we can share across the mediums. Have you tried a resist with candlewax or crayon yet to promote texture? I’ll be that will work also.
This dog and cat that you have painted have soul!
Thank you! Oh my goodness, I think I need to get a hold of this frisket business before trying more things. But maybe a little further down the line… ;)
Wow, that frisket-stuff is real nice. I like it that you chose to color only part of the background. Apart from you great techniques: that dog is goofy and sweet with his shiny eyes and the two of them are really speaking to the viewer.