Created in 2022

"The opportunity to use childlike charm to tell an adult story is so fun. From his sassy posture to his big hat is irresistible. His image is so strong that he is the story not how he fits into his surroundings, so the negative space just promotes his strength. This is also an chance for me to experiment with a border design that promotes a deeper western theme. By using gold leaf is also creates a reflective component that will interact with light as it changes around it. The process here is creating the right blue with acrylic gouache. This is layered in after the image of the boy is established as a line drawing. After the background is complete I created the border design and masked it to apply the gold leaf sizing accurately and applied the leaf. Blue and gold is always a classic combo. All of this really established a stage for the boy to stand out. By using different shades of orange for his shirt it gives the fabric folds great depth and then also stands off the blue. All the resolution is done with graphite over the color pencil."