Day 04: Dracula (Bela Lugosi) - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 04: Dracula (Bela Lugosi)

This time, it's Bela Lugosi's Dracula, done with colored pencil and white chalk on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.  I used some Gamsol (oil paint solvent/thinner) and a paint brush to smear the colored pencil around and smooth out of most of the paper-grain effect of the colored pencil.

Below is the progression of the drawing.  The first drawing is really, REALLY off model for Bela Lugosi--the nose is too short, the mouth is too high on the face, the lower part of the head is too short and also too narrow on the left side... it's just a mess.  It changed rather drastically as it progressed.  But, I left it in as an example of how much of a difference just a half-inch can make... and to show how much a picture can change from the beginning to the end.  And, ugh, it was a LOT of work to fix!  Well, fix as much as I was able, anyways.  It's not a complete likeness, but it's closer than it was, I guess.

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Done with colored pencil and white charcoal pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 03: Frankenstein - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 03: Frankenstein

This time, it's Frankenstein.  And, yes, Frankenstein is the scientist; the monster is the pedant who points that out.  (An old joke I couldn't resist. ;-)

And here's the progression of the drawing, from the beginning to the finished image.  There weren't any pencils--I just started drawing with a ballpoint pen/gel pen, then used white gouache (Dr. Ph. Martin's Bleed Proof White) for the highlights.  I'm no Jung Gi Kim, but I get by.  

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Done with ballpoint pen/gel pen and white gouache on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Day 02: Nosferatu - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

Day 02: Nosferatu

Hey, two days in to "31 Days of HELL-o-Ween" 2019--so far, so good!  In this case, it's one of the creepiest vampires on celluloid: Nosferatu.

And, here's the pencils I did with a white charcoal pencil.  I painted over top the pencils with black and white gouache.

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Done with gouache on 8-1/2" x 11" black cardstock.

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Day 01: It Begins! - 31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019

31 Days of HELL-o-Ween 2019
Day 01: It Begins

(This picture is intended as a nod to Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein".)

Greetings!  OK, this is probably a bad idea.  In fact, I'm reasonably certain this is a bad idea.

Rather than my usual half-hearted participation in Inktober, I thought I'd invent something else:

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31 DAYS OF HELL-O-WEEN!  

(Queue lightning/thunder sound effects and scary screams)

 Here are some logos/stamps to use for those of you who want to play along at home!

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Rather than stick to using pen-and-ink (a good idea, IMHO--which is why Inktober got so popular), I'm opening this up to any medium.  And by "medium", I mean the spooky people who talk to ghosts!  Oh, wait, no, I mean any ARTISTIC medium: pen-and-ink, marker, watercolor, casein, acrylic, oil paint, charcoal, digital...  All of the above?  Whatever you want to use to do a Monster-a-Day for the next 31 days!

That's right--For the next 31 Days, I plan on posting drawings/paintings of monsters every day (mostly B-Movie monsters, as well as other famous movie monsters) until we reach Halloween.  So far I have plans for "Nosferatu", Bela Legosi Dracula, Christopher Lee Dracula, Frankenstein variations, "John Carpenter's The Thing", "Invasion of the Saucer-Men", "It Conquered the World", "They Live", "Plan 9 From Outer Space", etc., etc.  Y'know, the usual favorites.  Maybe even a few monsters of my own, if the muse strikes me.

I had hoped to get ahead of the rush and build myself up a bit of a cushion of a few extra drawings for any days in which life interrupts and I'm not able to get stuff done.  Alas, I just finished the digital painting above a couple hours ago.  I'm off to a glorious start and am behind schedule before I even began!  Sigh...

So, place your bets as to how long before I'm posting stick figures and smudges on paper as posts of Lovecraftian madness the mind cannot comprehend?  Or blank panels explaining it is "The Invisible Man"!  What excuses will I make when I inevitably fail to make a post on one (or more) of the days?  Will it be a spectacular and public failure?  Join me each day and find out!  (SPOILERS: It probably will!)

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The painting was done digitally on the iPad with ArtStudio Pro.

The Logo was created in Clip Studio Paint.

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Godzilla Vs. Rodin

Godzilla Vs. Rodin

OK, this is a dumb joke I've had in the back of my head since I was in middle school and heard the name of the French sculptor, Auguste Rodin.  He's most famous for doing "The Thinker", and a bunch of other sculptures you'd know if you saw them.  But, mostly "The Thinker".

So, you now have an inkling of the subtle mind of a young John Douglas at work.  That's right, I was able to substitute one letter and picture Godzilla fighting the sculptor Rodin, rather than one of his arch-rivals, Rodan.  Yes, yes, a very clever boy (he says, rolling his eyes).

Anyhoo, with the most recent Godzilla movie featuring Rodan (among other Godzilla foes), it seems as good a time as any to actually do the cartoon.

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STEP ONE:  I used the iPad version of Clip Studio Paint to scribble out the digital pencils.  I also included the really, REALLY rough pencils I did trying to layout the cartoon, trying to figure out which composition may work best.

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STEP TWO:  And, here are the digital inks, also done on the iPad.  I cheated a little bit by freehand tracing some random model buildings from the "Godzilla vs. Rodan" movie.  Speaking of cheating, I also found a "Godzilla vs. Rodan" logo and freehand traced it, as well--changing the letter from "A" to "I" in "Rodan".

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STEP THREE:  Finally, here is the color.  I used a series of Layers to color each section: One of the sky, one for the buildings, one for the logo, one for Godzilla, and one for Rodin.  Tada!

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Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint on the iPad.

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Mini-Paint: Action Figure / Still Life

Mini-Paint:

Still Life

Hey, it's another Mini-Paint!  Rather than just featuring one Star Wars (in)action figure, this painting is a still life of several nerd-based toys and such, gathered together.  In this case, it is a ceramic Chewbacca cup which I use as a paint brush/pen holder; a Hulk Funco Pop toy; and a GONK/Power Droid action figure (see?  I had to get a Star Wars (in)action figure in there somewhere...)

This is another in the paintings I am getting ready for a small art show in September 2019, which I am doing with my daughter down at the Middleton Library in Middleton, WI.  The (in)action figures are for the Children's section, while in the other part of the library, I will be doing more mythological based pen-and-ink drawings.  So, we'll see how that goes, as well.

Fingers crossed, I'm hoping to have 4-6 (in)action figure paintings--of which I'm on target with 5 of 'em so far.  And for the mythological drawings, I'm also hoping to have 4-6 of 'em done, too.  Again, we'll see how that goes...

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STEP ONE:  I started with an 8" x 10" piece of matboard, over which I painted a mixture of matte medium and blue casein (it's a paint that uses a milk-based protein as a binder--it's a lot like acrylic paint) as an ad hoc gesso for the painting.  Using a Blue Violet colored pencil, I did a rough sketch of the still life I set up.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the first layer of paint thrown down to give a sense of what the painting was going to be color-wise.

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STEP THREE:  I'm not sure if it was too much matte medium/casein, but the gouache kept wanting to "lift off" the painting more than usual, where I would touch the paint to the board, but then the layer of paint would kind of dissolve or run off down the board.  So, that was a bit of a pain in the @$$.  But, after enough patience and persistence, I was able to get the painting finished.

Hmmm, I should have thrown more shadows in the background for the pens and paintbrushes.  But, then again, it was already a pretty dark painting.  Oh, well...

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Done with Gouache on 8" x 10" primed matboard.

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Mini-Paint: 2-1B Medical Droid Action Figure

Action Figure Painting:

2-1B Medical Droid

Hey, it's another Action Figure painting!  Or, rather, IN-action Figure...  Am I right, folks?  Hello?  Is this thing on?  Anyhoo, it's another action figure mini-paint.  This time around, I chose to do another droid: 2-1B Medical Droid, first seen in "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back" after Luke was rescued from the Wampa cave, and also attached Luke's robotic hand at the end of the movie, too.

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STEP ONE:  As with the other action figure painting, I used a mixture of light-blue casein (sort of like an acrylic paint, except it uses a milk-based protein as the binder) and matte medium on a 6" x 9" piece of Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.  I then used a colored pencil to draw out the image to keep it from smearing around with the paints.

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STEP TWO:  Here's roughly the halfway point.  I just threw down some color to model some of the darks and lights, and a sense of the form, as well as the background color.

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STEP THREE:  And, as usual, lots of lots of painting, repainting, and re-repainting and here's finished painting of the 2-1B Medical Droid Action Figure.  For some reason, the color and painting gave me a lot more trouble than usual.  It took about 8 hours to finish, give-or-take.

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Done with gouache on 6" x 9" Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.

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Mini-Paint: Admiral Ackbar Action Figure

Action Figure Painting:

Admiral Ackbar

Hey, it's another Action Figure Mini-Paint!  This time, it's everyone's favorite Mon Calamari (to paraphrase Homer Simpson: "Mmmmmm, Calamari"), Admiral Ackbar.

I have a small art show along with my daughter coming up in September 2019 at the Middleton Library in Middleton, WI.  It will be a mix of about five-to-six pen-and-ink drawings based on monsters and characters from Greek Myth, and about five-to-six paintings of action figures in the Children's section.  So, there will be at least a couple more Action Figure Quick Paints in the near future posted on the Blog.

Oh, and of course: "IT'S A TRAP!"

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STEP ONE:  I used a mixture of light-blue casein (sort of like an acrylic paint, except it uses a milk-based protein as the binder) and matte medium on a 6" x 9" piece of Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.  I then used a colored pencil to draw out the image.

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STEP TWO:  Here is about the halfway point--just a quick laying down of the colors to give a sense of what it will vaguely look like, and also to give the gouache paint something to "stick" to.  It helps to have a thin layer of paint down, then it allows you to paint more opaquely over top.  Otherwise, it can become something of a streaky mess--um, just like the painting above, in fact.

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STEP THREE:  And, after lots and LOTS of back-and-forth, painting and re-painting, here's the finished effort.  An Admiral Ackbar action figure painting, done after about 5-6 hours.

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Done with gouache on 6" x 9" Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.

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Dark Tower - There Are Other Worlds Than These.

The Dark Tower:

"There Are Other Worlds Than These."

This was a commission of sorts.  A friend of mine is a HUGE "The Dark Tower" fan and wanted me to do a painting of the Tower.  I've read "The Dark Tower" and was a fan of the series.

Being a sucker for alternate universe stories, I happened to mention the line "There are other worlds than these", one of the lines from "The Gunslinger" which always stuck with me (and, in the context of the story, was a bit of a cheat, IMHO).  That turned out to be her favorite line in the whole series--so that nailed down the theme right away.

I went with a more graphical image for "The Dark Tower", rather than something more literal; she was super-please with it, while I'm slightly more ambivalent.  I'm not sure if I will do more with this or not.  I am half-tempted to go go further with it and do it up as a giant, digital print.  Then  again, maybe in an other world.

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STEP ONE:  The pencils were done digitally in Clip Studio Paint EX using the Symmetry Tool.  I found a reference to groups of roses and drew it freehand from there.  And, I admit to cheating a little bit by typing out the lettering in non-photo blue and then inking over it.  (Yeah, I still **HATE** lettering... :-)

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STEP TWO:  I printed out the digital drawing in non-photo blue.  I used painter's tape to keep the sharp edge for the banner across the upper-half of the drawing; it did a remarkable job of keeping a sharp edge when I inked/watercolored over top of it.

I did a layer of Cadmium Red for the roses, and a mixture of light-red near to the tower.  I then used a mixture of the Cadmium Red, Ultramarine, and Burnt Umber to paint the lines for the roses, thinning it out with water to make it lighter.  I painted the watercolor/gouache over the Dark Tower inks.  And, decided to leave Roland in white silhouette, with a slight nod to the doorways in "The Drawing of the Three".

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Done with digital pencils and ink with watercolor/gouache on 8" x 10" Arches Hot-Press paper.

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Mini-Drawing: Seven of Nine

Seven of Nine

By request of a friend from work, here's a drawing of Seven of Nine from "Star Trek: Voyager".  I always liked the character.  I even remember reading Star Trek novel writer, Peter David, in his "But, I Digress" column in the late "Comics Buyers' Guide", had suggested a female Borg long before Seven of Nine appeared (and the Borg Queen from the Movie, too).  At the time, the Producers just said all Borg were male and left it at that.  Hmmm...  

Anyhoo, I liked the character and have been doing some drawing in colored pencil lately, so figured "Sure, I'll do it... and post it on my Blog for good measure."  It's a two-fer!

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STEP ONE:  Here's the start of the drawing sketched out with a black colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  Hmmm, I thought I had scanned in the drawing sometime during the mid-point, but I thought wrong!  Here's the finished drawing.  It was done with a series of black, white, and gray colored pencils.  The toned cardstock gives a nice, neutral value which can either be brightened or darkened, with the added bonus that it really makes the lighter areas pop out.

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Done with colored pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" toned cardstock.

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Mini-Paint: Chewbacca Action Figure

Action Figure Painting:

Chewbacca

In memory of the late, great Peter Mayhew, here's a painting of a Chewbacca action figure.  When I was a kid, I always thought of Chewie as Han Solo's pet.  Nowadays, I have to wonder if Han was actually Chewie's pet... 

Alas, it is a little delayed, as I had to wait until I visited my Mom again to raid some more of my childhood action figures (I have a fist full of 'em to paint in the future).  Sure, I could have just pulled an image off the internet, but it somehow felt like cheating, so once I was able to get my filthy mitts on the actual action figure, I set to do another Quick Paint.  It was done with gouache--an opaque watercolor.

Again, I should probably be doing more of these Quick Paintings... and probably will.  So, look forward to more "Inaction Figures" in the future, sprinkled throughout!

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STEP ONE:  I used a mixture of light-blue casein (sort of like an acrylic paint, except it uses a milk-based protein as the binder) and matte medium as a sort of ad hoc gesso on a 6" x 9" piece of Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.  I then used a colored pencil to draw out the image, as it would both be lighter to allow for it to more easily covered by the gouache, and would also smear less as it was painted over.  

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STEP TWO:  This is the first step in laying down a layer of warm colors over it's complimentary color (blue and orange/brown are on opposite sides of the color wheel... I won't bore you with color theory at the moment).  Laying down a light layer of gouache also gives the new layers of paint something to grab onto and do more opaque paints.

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STEP THREE:  And, after a **LOT** of painting and re-painting shadows and highlights, here is the finished painting.  It took an embarrassing amount of time to finish this (4-5 hours), but it turned out all right, all things considered.

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Done with gouache on 6" x 9" Canson XL (#140) watercolor paper.

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Revenge of the Fifth/Sixth - 2019

Revenge of the Fifth 2019 /

Revenge of the Sixth - 2019

Hey, I made it just under the wire of being only one week late!  Um, nevermind trying to diagram the meaning of that sentence... It boils down to I was busy--mostly out of town--during "May the Fourth" and "Revenge of the Fifth"/"Revenge of the Sixth", so it messed up my schedule quite a bit.  But, excuses are like E. coli... everyone has about a trillion of 'em.

For some dumb reason, "Revenge of the Fifth" seems more popular than "Revenge of the Sixth", even though "Sixth" is a better pun of "Sith", IMHO--although "Fifth" has the singular advantage of being the next day to "May the Fourth".

Anyhoo, once again, my lone, Quixotic vision of having Jaxxon the Rabbit being returned to "Star Wars" canon has motivated another cartoon/comic strip this year.  Why do I keep doing this to myself and others each year?  What part of "Quixotic" don't you understand?  :-P

This time around, Jaxxon is Quantum Leaping into Darth Vader having a heart-to-heart with his son, Luke (if you'll forgive the reference to the 90's TV Series, "Quantum Leap").

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STEP ONE:  It's the quickly scribbled blue line pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint EX.  The canvas is 1,500px x 2,250px at 600dpi.

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STEP TWO:  The inks were done in Clip Studio Paint EX, with a standard inking brush. 

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STEP THREE:  Finally, the coloring was done on a series of Multiply Layers.  When it was done, I imported the image into Photoshop to reduce the resolution and output it as a .jpg for the Blog you are indifferently starting at right now... as... you... read... these... words...  :-P

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint EX.

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May the Fourth Be With You - 2019

May the Fourth Be With You!

Hey, it's my "May the Fourth Be With You" for 2019.

"But, John," I can hear you saying, "it's May 11th.  You're a week late!"  Yes, well, that is true... but I was busy!  So there!  

"But, John, where is Jaxxon the giant, green, Star Wars rabbit?  Aren't you supposed to be on some Quixotic quest to get Jaxxon back into Star Wars cannon?"  Very true!  But, that post will have to wait until either Sunday May 12th, or Monday, May 13th, when I do my posting for "Revenge of the Fifth/Sixth".  See?  It all makes perfect sense!

Anyhoo, this a really dumb mash-up which I alluded to last year when I used the Power Droid/Gonk Droid/GNK Droid for one of my "Unwanted Valentines".  In fact, I used most of the drawing of the GNK Droid from the "Unwanted Valentine" and just added the arm and He-Man's sword.  Two parts of my childhood, Star Wars and He-Man, brought together!  You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!  And you got your peanut butter on my chocolate!

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STEP ONE:  Just for fun, I included the line drawing for the Power Droid.  It was done on a 1,500px x 2,100px canvas at 300dpi.  When I dropped the resolution to 200dpi for posting on the Blog, it resized to 1,000px x 1,400px.

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STEP TWO:  Hey, it's a bunch of colors which were done on a series of layers.  I used the Radial Perspective tool in Clip Studio Paint to make the radiating lights from the He-Man sword.

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Done digitally in Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint EX.

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Mini-Paint: Death Star Droid Action Figure

Action Figure Painting:

Death Star Droid (3B6-RA-7 Protocol/Spy Droid)

For no reason at all, here's a watercolor/gouache painting of an action figure I owned as a kid: the Death Star Droid (although, he was actually seen on the Jawa's Sandcrawler on Tatooine, so... Sandcrawler Droid?).  It's been a while since I've done a "Quick Paint", and no real reason I shouldn't do more of 'em, now that I think of it.

My Mom was doing some spring cleaning, going through a bunch of old action figures we owned as kids and, when I was visiting, I saw the Death Star Droid action figure and felt like painting something shiny.  So, here we are.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils done with a .5mm mechanical pencil on 6" x 9" Canson XL watercolor paper.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the quick under-painting, done in about 20-30 minutes.  I kept the palette very limited--Carbon Black, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, and Ultramarine Blue.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting, with a total time of about 4 hours... much longer than I intended.  One of the problems with painting something so shiny is that because I was a moron, I just held it in one hand and painted with the other (I needed it close enough to properly see the detail of what I was painting).  So, any little turn or change in position in my hand, caused a significant change in the lighting/highlights with the action figure.  Sigh...

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Done with watercolor/gouache on 6" x 9" Canson XL watercolor paper.

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