"Well Stocked"

Trying to stay on top of the whole painting thing. And as fate would have it, yesterday was a snow day at the shop. So I found myself without a client to tattoo. So I went to the studio to finish this piece. I had done the sketch quite a few months ago, with the intentions of painting her. But never seemed to find the time. Using this slightly new/old way of working I find myself a bit less stressed when working. Something about working with the markers, and pencils, than just doing the finish work with the airbrush. Not certain how others are liking this style, but IM digging it, so... This is the cleaned up version of the original sketch. I dug the idea of the tattoo machine parts in her hair, and the paint brushes sticking out from under her bandana. Always ready for action. Corny I know, but somewhat appropriate. I found the reference on line. turns out its a gal I met when she came up to get tattooed by Hope's Christian Perez. Her name is Lexi Yarbrough. Great energetic gal, traveling, and tattooing. Something bout her look struck a cord, and I decided to use a cool little snap shot found on her site, for this piece. After transferring the sketch to the Strathmore tinted ArtAgain Paper, via light table. I start blocking in with my Copic, and Pantone markers. I even broke out some of my old PrismaColor markers. While working on a tinted paper does defeat the purpose of starting with transparent markers. I like the base tinted surface for the pencils, and paint. From there, I start working in the PrismaColor pencils. I try to bring the piece as far as I can at this stage. Only wanting to rely on the Air Brush, and Paint brush as a finishing tool. Too smooth out certain shadows, and tones, and add high lights that I couldn't achieve with the pencils. IM using all Badger, Holbien, and Golden liquid/AirBrush Acrylics, at this stage. I have an ample amount, and am pretty familiar with them. I am using light coats of workable fixative in between Pencil, and paint. As to give the paint something to kind of stick to. Thinking that the waxy finish of the PrismaColor pencils is not an ideal surface. The original is roughly 11x14", on 12x18" paper. Im titling this one "Well Stocked".

Hope to produce prints of this gal soon.