Slowvember Water Dragon WIP

[sigross]

So I'm making a Chinese Water Dragon mixed media artwork for Slowvember. No backing out now.
I thought I'd start posting and try to keep it to weekly updates. I don't want to slack off.
It's my biggest creation to be made on a wooden panel, as it was originally meant to be a mural a few years ago.
It got cancelled due to the venue backing out when I presented the cost!
The Dragon is going on a 140 cm x 70 cm panoramic plywood panel with a metal frame that prevents the wood from warping.
The poplar plywood is primed with Golden GAC 100 to help seal the wood.

So far I have sprayed the surface using a primer layer with Signal white Molotow Belton spray paint.
But I wanted a textured under-painting so I brushed on a titanium white Non-absorbent acrylic primer (by Michael Harding).
I did leave it outside to dry but it rained and messed it up a bit! : SO.. I gave it another coat.

For me because its a large surface I thought I'd do a smaller painting first. A cross section of just the dragons head.
Always best to do a test painting I reckon. I've ended up going for 2 tests.
One finished in black ink and white paint. Now working on one in colour to match the copic marker colours and acrylics I'm using on the final piece.

I used frisk trace down to draw the dragon head onto the surface as this doesn't leave any residue when inking/painting over the top.
I make it pretty quick and rough (from a digital printed to scale sketch).
First time I messed up as I did it in graphite and this smudged loads and was difficult to paint over the top.
Best option was in red as it's easy to spot when the blues go down and easy to paint over with lighter colours.

So this is where I'm at. Here's some of my other tools with the colours I'm using.
I like these pump action brushes even though they clog up quickly, the nibs are cheap and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I use the refills as this saves money. Just hoping they play well with the Copic markers as I haven't tried them together before. I like to experiment!

Hope to have something a bit more substantial by the end of the week.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@sigross i’m so excited to see your final piece

[sigross]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Nice one. I'm looking forward to slowing down and just making one piece this month. Are you making something for Slowvember?