I really like how this Illustration came out. I knew that I wanted to paint sushi, but if I was going to spend fifty hours on a painting, it needed to be something really interesting and befitting of my unique sense of humor. So I just went for it. I was thumb-nailing, and stuff started to get kind of weird. And I liked it. So I decided on an illustration of a table in a sushi restaurant, with one human, and three big, ugly fish-heads.
Taking reference for this illustration was a lot of fun. It was an excuse to go out for sushi at the very least. I got an idea of what authentic sushi looked like and how it was presented, as well as the atmosphere of a japanese restaurant. Then I had my Male Asian friend sit at a table and make weirded-out faces at a female Asian friend, who I told to pretend to be a fish person. Really, I jus told her to throw her head back and gargle violently. I got the face that I needed. Then I went to my local H-Mart for some dead fish! I bought two frozen fishies and took pictures of them in my backyard bathed in sunlight!
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To paint this picture, I used permanent acrylic inks to build up an extensive underpainting. Most of the background and all of the base colors were done in ink. Then I used colored pencil over the inks to bring out the little details. The colored pencils were great for the fishes scales because I could use their texture to my advantage. Everywhere else I had to try and minimize the colored pencil texture by keeping a really sharp point.
This method of painting is a lot faster than using acrylic inks alone. Because the colored pencil goes so well on top of the inks, they can be used for most of the shading. It’s like taking the benefits of painting and the benefits of drawing, and combining them into one.
You can view this picture anytime at shaunart.net
