Painting a Bucket Hat - Full Coverage -with an Imagined Story World

1. Introduction: What's happening? The kind folks, Welcome to another I pay increase your skill share class on skillshare.com. Today. Gonna take you through the process of doing this bucket hat. This is, I think one of the third or fourth bucket hats I did. I have one class that is here on Skillshare that is about painting a bucket hat a. But I have applied a whole bunch of new techniques and I'm using some pigment inks and acrylics. I'm creating original characters from imagined storyworld. So each little panel on one of these tells a story. And so in this class I'm going to take you through how I get started and show you a little bit of the sketching process and talk about what tools I use for the sketching tools basically inform you of all the different thoughts I have. The different tools I use, the processes, the ways we bring things into fruition. And we take it to the next level. We're basically going to give it a real perfect way of letting, you know all that goes into creating a one of a kind hat. Definitely go into all the acrylic techniques. And when I choose to use the pigment inks versus the acrylics. And basically take you along for the ride. Like to always bring a lot of inspiration and influence to try your own artistic, creative characters from your imagination and apply such powerful tools like these pigment ink pens and the basics of acrylics and industrial way of doing things. I will see you over in video two where we will start the inky. And basically we'll go through how I get the drawing locked in. All my thoughts of how I render things to a story level more than just rendering and how I pull off certain things like I drew an aspirin right there. I'll go into a little bit of the illustration process and then how I start to render it with the ink and how the paint applies to this type of surface. Get your ink pens out. You're not necessarily they have to have a bucket hat, but get some type of Canvas type material, maybe even a patch. And it all be about how to get your illustrations and your details. And of course fulfill it with full color and bring it to life and tell a story alongside of basically putting it all on this hat. And then at the end, while Locke, you get original hat, it has a storybook element to it. It has fine our element to it because I really used acrylics and really painting layer and use a lot that tried and trued acrylic techniques. And then I go back and forth with the pigment inks like right here. I'm showing basically the end of the process and showing how I make sure the details are locked in so you can get the story of what's going on. I have a lot of my original characters that came from my imagination. And so I will talk about how I developed them and brought them to a level where I can draw them over and over again and have the confidence to draw it on, on such a challenging surface as a bucket hat. Course, we'll go into all the different steps and methods to get there to make sure at 1 you have the fluidity and the surface takes all the ink and the paint. You can tell your story. So I will see you over in video two where we will get into the drawing process and a little bit of the inking. And then the last video is the full-on color. And how we get to a final rendered story book on a hat, on a bucket hat. Thanks for attending the course that hit at a time. Painting original characters from the imagination and acrylics and pigment ink on a bucket hat. C over video too. 2. Drawing - Inking: All right, Welcome to the inking part of this class on Skillshare. And this is painting in a bucket hat from the imagination and creating a whole. Imagine a storyworld with acrylics and pigment inks and a few other tools. Just wanted to show the process of this and really give as many tips as I can. This is the part where you can really lock in your drawing. And of course, I always recommend to use your sketchbook and really learn how to draw your characters or your original imagined creatures are figures. And really learn how they all connect. And of course, one method to use is use what's called an art board. And you can do it digitally. You can do it just by collecting a bunch of images off the Internet. Just that suggests where you're going. So like I'm drawing a tattoo right here, which is basically most people know it as a dragon. But tattoos are pretty defined. So tattoo take on like a camel and maybe an alligator and a lizard. They have horns that are like a deer. And so I would, what I usually do is I don't really like to make the art board. I like to make it in my mind. I basically go on Internet and start just typing in search engines for images, all different types of things that I want to represent. And I'll just spend some time observing more than making an art board. And I'll basically go on there and I'll type alligator and look at alligators from all different angles. Look at how all the parts connect. Go through the basic anatomy, figure out like how has it Joel's and how it has its cheekbones. And specially because a lot of my characters are imaginative characters. And so they may be animals or creatures, but I also want to build the structure and so I can make them smile and have expressions. And so I think it's really important the sides of the mouth and really defining the cheekbone and not necessarily doing dialed in anatomy or proper NAS, but getting the drawing. So it's fun and it communicates the story you're trying to do and the nature of the character. I'll look at camels and alligators and lizards, and maybe horses. And look at deers and different types of deers and different types of that type, fannie antelopes and look at the kind of the way They had their horns at all. They're Creature Feature parts. And like I said, I don't particularly like to click them. I like to just look at them. I don't even like to draw off of them. And I just kinda put it in my visual library my head. And then I go into my sketchbook and I love using a big stick, which I'm using right now. And a big stick is a ballpoint pen. And they have some type of AgCl ink because it works with mixed media a lot like after it dries, it doesn't smear and actually alcohol-based markers and anchors can handle it. And then it's just a great sketching tool I've always found for me, at least, to bring in the acrylics and render it all fully out as acrylic piece. But so I dropped my sketchbook. I get all my ideas down. I really get to look. And then when I'm in my sketchbook, I really pay attention to how all the Creature Feature parts of the character connect. If it has a hat or horns or hair, different structure like this tattoo, which is like a dragon. I make sure I pay attention to where the neck is connected because their neck on Dragon Tattoo is connected to the back of his head, not like our next subtle things like that. And I'll sketch enough until I get the expression and the look I want, because I'm a character designer, I really dial that in. And then when I'm comfortable drawing it, I'll draw it and I'll actually look at the clock. And I'll sketch it really quick in my sketchbook and see how fast I can draw it and get the look and the feel I want. And then when I'm in to that level, then I bring it to this. And what I've found on these bucket hats, the first ones I did, I didn't do what's called JSR. And Jess is basically a white acrylic that is a ground for acrylic because acrylic works really well because it's binders, polymer, plastic. So if you lay the first layer down, the next layers can smoothly glide across the surface and it really is good for detailed illustration. I found that if I just saw the whole hat, so this was Jess ODE with like three or four coats. What you need to do, I usually don't film it because it's really messy and it's kind of boring to see. But basically I go out on my front porch or my back porch and find the place I can kind of make a mess. And I just take a really cheap flat kind of pain or house painters brush. And I basically cover the coat and then I am not patient. So I'll use a hairdryer and then dry it off and then add a second layer and add as many layers as possible. It makes the hat really not aware of. But that's kind of the compromise you get because you get such beautiful art. It makes the hat get a little stiff and not so soft because a lot of these hats are cotton and they found cotton works pretty good. Ideally, I'd like a cotton that's a little more resilient. That would represent the kind of like a cotton canvas and it gets close, but the JSR helps it like crazy. And then I found the gesso really makes a great service for a ballpoint pen. And you can see, I'm sketching a lot like using a pencil. I don't just go straightforward to get the lines. I, I do kind of sketchy method and then I put the mixture, I pay attention to the ratios and the perspectives, the proportions and put them all right, and the angles. Then when I have them all in, I'll go back and darken it. But right there and just wanted to show you the process almost in real time of how I sketch the characters on here. I'll meet you over in the next video. In the next video, we're going to color the whole hat and take you through that process. It sped up pretty quick, but I'll see you over in video three. Let's go color. 3. Coloring and Painting: Alright, welcome to video three, where we are bringing on the color and the acrylic. So one of my favorite part of painting and been working with acrylics for years. So I'm gonna give you all kinds of tips and kind of the pitfalls, but also the joy of making a hat like this. First of all, the first thing I'd like to cover is the tools I'm using right now. Basically to decide is the palate. And basically it's called a stay wet palette and it's specifically made for that. You can make homemade ones. Basically you just gotta get them absorbent sponge type material or like I enhance this one even though it was made to be a stay wet palette, I use squeezy like a squeezy type sponge that's made out of leather and stuff, also known as a shammy. And so basically I put that underneath and I soak it in really hot water for a little while. And then I have the little spongy material that came with the stay wet palette and I will soak that in really warm water and then let it dry up on its own. Then I use what's called pallet paper. And it's kind of like synthetic paper, but it definitely does absorb the water, but it also resists it too. So you soak that for like five or five to seven minutes in the warm water and get it all dialed in and squeeze it out a little bit. And then I'll try to do because the key is just to keep it moist because acrylic paints, like I mentioned last video, are made out of their binders polymers, so they're plastic. So it dries pretty quick and it sets in pretty quick. Another thing about acrylics is not what you see, what you get. Usually acrylics and will dry a lot more darker than it looks because it's almost like it's wet field, but it's just the nature of it. So I love to paint really bright and bold and so it really doesn't affect me. But if you're doing more realistic stuff and not so imagine your stuff, you've got to pay attention to that. You might have to lock it in a little bit later after you filled it all in. I'll talk a little bit about the brush I'm using right there. And many of the top, it's a very, I'm not going to be brand specific with it. But basically a lot of the top brushes, it is a Princeton brush. It prints it and makes a wide variety of acrylic oil and mixed media and watercolor brushes. And I think this one, can, I use it for watercolor? I actually have used it for oils and I love it for acrylics. And what is, is it's a 1 fourth a brush that's the size. And why it's so powerful is because it's kinda like an edge brush. So you could call it a dagger, but it's not especially like a dagger is more like an angled almost going to a dagger in there. I zoom on it a little bit. I found you can get really, really thin lines with this brush. I feel I can control it more than a really fine point liner around there called lines, liners that have a really stretched out point and usually made of really fancy brush hairs, natural brush hairs from animals. And I think this one is, it might be, I don't know if it's a natural Bushehr. It might be synthetic. Which is synthetic basically means they use the brush. They simulate the brush with synthetic hairs. They very much studying animal hair brush and then simulate it. Sometimes there's advantages they do it right? Because then it's more resilient and it could take a little more BD. And you can kind of formulate into what's called snap back to point. But I loved this burst because I can wielded a lot like a dagger in the sense that I have the base edge of it and the other ends. So I can do a lot of swoosh, isn't gonna get a lot of special effects and a lot of coverage. Real quick by using the rest of it. But since it's angled, if you prepared enough and you'd get the right consistency of paint, right consistency and liquid. And you dial it in, you can get really fine details. And that's one thing because I'm an illustrator to that I tried to do and I would recommend to you if you like drawing and you like painting, because painting to me is more shapes and the light direction of things drawn is more lines to make what you're trying to formulate, bringing the form. And they both use light but painting, you can really get quick feedback on the light by just defining the light and splashing different hues and shades and values that come in. The Princeton works so amazing. Like I said, all the professional brush companies you can find basically what's called an angled brush. Yes. If you take care of these brushes, especially the princess didn't want, it will last a long, long time. It'll snap back to the point and the angled brushes the key. So now going into a little bit of my process of painting here. First of all, if you look at my palette, I define my palette, the colors I'm going to use. And a lot of times I would suggest for any of you, especially if it's a new acrylic brand you're using. Spend some time on in your sketchbook or scratch paper or something and find out all the colors that really blend together. And I'm basically working with an earth tone palette, but you will always see me work from a CMYK as the basis. So I have a lemon yellow on there or a Hansa yellow. Then I have a cyan up top I just dipped into. Then I have a magenta down below. Now, I built my palette a little more out so I can get the vibrancy, which I loved to do and punching the color. And so there's almost like a maroons sitting next to magenta. So it's a darker red, more headed toward the brown's earth tones sitting next to the lemon yellow, the Hansa yellow, and there's like a burnt sienna and there's some type of warmer yellow That's going more towards the red and orange area. Then of course I have my darks over them, right. So I actually have some bone black and I also have some Diaz I never know how to say diazonium wherever the dark, dark purple color. And then I have very dark, dark, the darkest blue that you can use. And then I compliment it with a slimy green, which I'm punching the background off, and then some yellow green. There's all different names for all different brands. And so you just got to try them out. And then that's definitely a fellow bleed blue or what some brands call it as a primary blue. It's very headed toward the more the yellow teal area of the blue, which helps you when you mix with us really strong magenta, you'll get a beautiful violet or purple instead of brown. Purple. Now in the layering process, what I've been doing here is I do what's called negative painting. I paint, I sketched all my characters and creatures and objects and props with ballpoint pen. Just showed you the one tattoo drag that I did. Just to show you the process that and then I just enjoy myself. It does take some time. It is a challenging surface. Sometimes you'll try to draw a line and then it'll go over a bump or something on the hat and he just got to roll with it. And I think the more you do it, the more comfortable you get in doing it. And that's how I've got two real comfortable state to really get some really detailed illustrations and be able to focus on the story more than just painting the hat. I do all the negative painting. That way it really defines the character punchy. And then it helps me really decide the colors to color in the character. The character is very readable because once again, like I said in the intro, I'm, I'm a visual storytellers. I render 98% of my paintings and illustrations to tell the story. And so if it's a certain kind of fish and it's combining something that's really out there and what I call fantastical. You got to really make sure you nail the shape of it and color it with the complimentary colors so it pops. And it brings to the next level. Example right there is the fish has one of those lights on the top. So it could be one of those official fishes. But I invented it a lot where I've been It is in my sketchbook all the time. Basically. That fishes beaming some light. And so here I'm using the negative painting technique. I got that pretty dark teal mixed in probably with a little bit of blacks or darker blues to get it to start going through a darker color. And then I do the negative painting. Negative painting really works really good because you can see that first that I just did, I totally use oranges and agendas and reds. So when I put the blue behind it, it just made it bump off the page and fly off the page. Here is a real challenge because this character is called Bob Massu in his little mouth and he has a big afro. It's a challenge to use those grays. And how do you get grades in acrylics? You either add, start adding a little bit of black. Another way to do it is start adding white and then work in a wet-on-wet technique. Not too much but enough that you can start pick up the edges. So it's just not a pure, pure white that's going down and you can start to see more values. And then just like I've been a form, some people have the background of inking, even if they just loved comics, they were always paying attention. There was grabbing the tools, right? To hone that. And then I think the real magic comes in when you commit and you go, wow, I do this and I'm good at it and nothing stops you from there. And it's a lot of what I hear about a lot of acrylic rendered stuff and getting good at acrylics or you can come forth. And one of the most important things to me, which I'm demonstrating here is the ability to tell a story. And a lot of that can be done through your mouth, into your voice, but a lot of it can get grounded in writing. And when you write it, you also have a more process of really understanding where it came from. If you're like me who really loves to use Rick mediums and try new methods. And especially this is why I like bringing it here to Skillshare, to basically always show you the cutting edge of traditional media in some digital. But mainly I follow all that. So I can basically inform you on all these new techniques because another thing I work really a lot with is integrating the computer, not necessarily to digital art, but to integrate the computer, to acknowledge that we are living more of a symbolic world. And like I tell people, most people is if you get a chance to play with the software, first of all, really realize, go back and forth to the acrylics and realize the power of how they've evolved that from how people have painted for years and centuries in the physical world. Here's where I'm protecting me and find all those cases. Yesterday. Ballpoint cameras have gotten down. Incredible maintaining. I also have a whole bunch of other prime. These are lunar color than me, but still they're the same thing. And they said, What's key? Major tip, I would always try. Not great brush tip more the street but sit that has all the hairs. And here's the number one tip. I'm leave you with. Make sure that the acrylic has some time to dry because especially with a fine liners, when you go over the acrylic is still wet. It gets up in the pen and you can ruin your pen. It doesn't do as much with the brush pen because the brush pen is made to the way painters loved dirty brushes. It brings some of the color over with it. So get out there, find a canvas or even just a patchy material JSR and paint along with me. And then when you get confident and get one that hat and come back to the course and put it on and take on a hat. Thank you for watching my Skillshare class and I'll see you folks soon. Lease and feedback. I loved the feedback you've been leaving lately. And that really helps me do cool creative ideas and bring you into my world and bringing more incredible learning experiences right now on Skillshare that time. Thank you very much, piece.