Painting the Pirate Redd a mixed media illustration by Patrick Scullin.
Disney recently updated and expanded the history of the popular Redd character from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. With a new personality and backstory her character has added another dimension to the 50 year old ride at Disneyland. I was smitten with her myself when I met her in the park and decided she would be a great subject for a new painting in my portfolio. What follows are a few images at different stages of the design and painting process. For this image I decided to try a mixed media technique combining both digital and traditional tools. Enjoy!
I like to start with rough sketching in my sketchbook. This was my favorite composition idea. I took a photo and dropped it into photoshop. I like to use my rough sketches as a guide to build my photo reference and mockups. When finished with the preliminary rough work I create a finished outline sketch.
Working in Photoshop, at this stage I complete my finished sketch using Frenden pencil and ink brushes. With the line art complete I work on a value painting with additional bristle brushes.
My favorite brush in Photoshop by far is the mixer brush. In the grayscale painting below you can see where I use the mixer brush to smear the digital paint to create a texture effect and simulate bold brush strokes. The goal at this stage is to establish all of the light and dark areas of the image. When the rough work is done in the computer it's time to print on canvas.
I printed the Photoshop grayscale painting on 16"x20" canvas. The print from Costco came with a glossy surface so I used a matte finish Liquitex medium to paint over it to dull the print. When that dried I took my acrylic paint and built up washes of color to establish warm and cool tones.
Here is a photo of the canvas on my painting easel.
Below is the painting well underway. Opaque areas have been filled in while preserving some of the semi transparent background. I like a mixture of finished and rough areas in a painting. I really enjoy seeing brush strokes and the original drawing poking through in the final painting.
