This comes from my wild fantasies about being an English Victorian Illustrator. My faves are Arthur Rackam, Aubrey Beardsley, the not-so-Victorian Eric Kincaid, and neither Victorian nor English Charles Santore.
In this technique, I will copy a photograph onto watercolor paper, do all the detail in pen and ink, and then give it a color wash.
If you ever have taken a photo where reality only lasts a second you might get a little shakie. On the left: I took this years ago of Feargus our Scottie and George the new kitten. Their friendship was legendary and sadly, they are no longer with us. I kicked myself for not getting a clear image but I managed to transfer this to a watercolor and pencil mix, on the right. Do you have a photo you would like to see renovated? We can do this. Contact me.
This is the photo I took of “the hood”. Though the decorations are adorable, I wanted to keep it to one point. These two guys like to hang out together. So it is down to two cats on the porch.
Below, I rearranged the photo by simplifying it and making it not so seasonal. Transferring it to watercolor paper, I did the pen and ink in sepia with a watercolor wash.
