"SSK Barracuda" - finished

[KarenESP]

Another crocodile, the title is the name of one of our submarines, I thought that was funny. It's also the name of a cool hotrod, Mopar. I am putting this one together from three different crocs and making up my own- kind of like L.Davinci did with the Mona Lisa - just not as 'pretty' . I need to learn how to do that since the photographers ignore me when I ask for permission.

[KJSieloff]

We're waiting......****arms folded, tapping foot****

[clydeine]

LOL I thought you were going to do a barracude. I have seen a school of them off Mexico.. they are an impressive site. Just as your crocs are!

[KarenESP]

16"X20" on Illustration Board

Well, here is my - maybe not final eye... but I'm leaving it for now. Once again I tried to get the scales that make it up to show through, this time I put on acrylic eyeshine, but if I decide I don't like that, I'll just do my usual eyeshine.
Next I'll post some notes about the eye.
Eye is 3 1/2" X 2 1/2"
I'm going to wait to get some stuff in around it before I make a final decision about changing it further right now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKqWSHYFnrw
smile like the sun and kisses for everyone..
tales that never fade...
Ohhhhh.. Baracuda
Whisper Game...

[KJSieloff]

Yay! Another brilliant work to watch you do!

Kate

[KarenESP]

Here's the colors

1. The light areas:
Chartruse - the light green kind PC989
Jeane Chartruse - the light yellow kind PC 1004
Jasmine, the darker light yellow PC 1012
Rembrant lemon Cadmium


2. The scales and shading
Bronze PC1028
Vert Ocean, dark green pc 988
Expresso Gray PC 1099
Rembrant black, kinda weak, shows up more like a dark gray

[KarenESP]

Thank you Kate

Eye Recipe:

First I put down the light green Chartruse real thick over all.

then I hit it thick with the darker yellow, Jasmine, to make it not looks so eye popping spring green but would still be bright

Then I started filling in the scales of the eye with the greenish Bronze... I could see some scales but not all, I just put in scale shapes all over.

then the Bronze didn't show up dark enough so I hit it with the vert ocean (green), when that didn't show up dark enought (cause I had plastered so much light stuff down ) I finally went over the scales with the expresso.

Then, back to the darker yellow, carefully and gently went over all to put down thin layer of wax, so as not to scrub off my scale markings... then mashed down the yellow hard over all so that it was like looking through an eye to the scales.

Then I got out my rectangle eraser, cut the edge of to make it real sharp... then I started erasing little bits of the eye all the way down to the light yellow and bright green, to make the light look like it was coming through the eye.. also little spots all around where there was light on the ref. pic.

Then I re defined the little scales again , peppering to taste (put some little circles in my eye scales like the big scales have), and put some shadowing in.

The I got out painters tape, and put on the little shapes of the eye shine so I could have straight edges, like ref pic. Mixed up some white, black and blue eye shine, mostly white... and plopped that on like in ref pic, then immediately stuck my finger down and up on it so as to pull of 'most' of it and just have a sheer amount on there.

If I dont like that eye shine, I can do it my usual way becaue that little bit of acrylic I put on there will just demolish off with my pencils.. found this out previously.

[KarenESP]

Then I went over all to even out shadowing with light chartruse green, and hit the light coming though the bottom of the eye with my Rembrant Lemon Cadmium.. hoping to get it to POP

Wow, my stuff is really smearing around on this 'illustration board'.. it's always got to be something

[KarenESP]

I decided to just use my regular eye shine technique cause that eye just wasn't poppin'

[KJSieloff]

This is just awesome!

I'm off to find a Gila Monster to get a pic of.

Kate

[Jayde]

Beautiful work! I can't believe the amount of detail in the initial sketch. That in itself must have taken ages to do.

[KarenESP]

Originally Posted by Jayde

Beautiful work! I can't believe the amount of detail in the initial sketch. That in itself must have taken ages to do.

Thank you Kate and Jade... it took a couple of hours of fudging around but I take breaks.

TIP: If you are trying to do a croc or gator eye in this manner, and for whatever reason your eye gets too dark on you, then sharpen one of your light pencils, I used the darker yellow... really sharp.. and you can use that to carve out the center of the little scales again, just carving the dark wax away with the sharp tip.. and it will brighten your eye scales back up again.

We also have a submarine called the SS Aligator ... but I didn't pick that one cause I wanted to play Barracuda by HEART


I have to work today but I can work on my project there and will take pics

[TessDB]

TIP: If you are trying to do a croc or gator eye in this manner, and for whatever reason your eye gets too dark on you, then sharpen one of your light pencils, I used the darker yellow... really sharp.. and you can use that to carve out the center of the little scales again, just carving the dark wax away with the sharp tip.. and it will brighten your eye scales back up again.

Good tip, Karen!

I haven't worked on something with scales, but teeny areas are something I run up against pretty often. I like to shape some poster putty to lift color from an area that has gone too dark. (Dab, don't drag.) And for really teeny areas, I wrap the putty around the tip of a dried-out ball-point pen or stylus or the end of a brush. One of the good things about using the putty is you don't run the risk of gouging or botching the surface of the paper.

It's coming along really well.
Rosemary

[KarenESP]

Originally Posted by TessDB

Good tip, Karen!

I haven't worked on something with scales, but teeny areas are something I run up against pretty often. I like to shape some poster putty to lift color from an area that has gone too dark. (Dab, don't drag.) And for really teeny areas, I wrap the putty around the tip of a dried-out ball-point pen or stylus or the end of a brush. One of the good things about using the putty is you don't run the risk of gouging or botching the surface of the paper.

It's coming along really well.
Rosemary

Never thought of putty Rosemary, Thanks

Wow - that eye looks much better on my work computer than it does on my home computer... wonder why that is.. huh?! Maybe it's my dinosaur monitor

[KarenESP]

I forgot to post up my pencil pics for my eye recipe, so here they are...

1. The light areas:
Chartruse - the light green kind PC989
Jeane Chartruse - the light yellow kind PC 1004
Jasmine, the darker light yellow PC 1012
Rembrant lemon Cadmium


2. The scales and shading
Bronze PC1028
Vert Ocean, dark green pc 988
Expresso Gray PC 1099
Rembrant black, kinda weak, shows up more like a dark gray

the eye color from one of the three crocs Im referring to , to put this together, turned out spot on. I was very pleased. That's cause I took the pic with me to the colored pencil stand and picked them out that way.