The Artwork of Bryndon Everett

I've taken this weekend to get some things done that have been neglected lately; 

Chiefly, I spent time working on my Motorcycle, watching Mad Men, and catching up on commissions. I have been very swamped lately. I haven't fallen behind, of course.....after all, it's me; But works been coming at me a lot the past few weeks. -It's really nice!

Anyway, I've been working on this commission for the guy who bought my first Gallery Nucleus Piece. He hired me to conjure up a companion piece. He wanted it to keep the literary/nautical theme of the last piece, but this time he requested Pirates and Mermaids as well.
I decided to document my process this time, unfortunately I didn't think of it until I was already working on the final iteration. It's been a fun piece, but it's taken quite a bit of tossed ideas to get to a composition I liked. -and I REALLY like it.-So here we go: 
After I had sketched the piece out digitally, I transferred it to thick bristol paper. I do this different ways depending on a projects time constraints, and what's available to me at the time. i.e. Tracing paper, transfer paper etc. I then draw it with a mechanical pencil. .05 or a .03 depending on how small the details, and how dark I need the lines.

  

After that's done with, I go over key lines in ink. For this I use a Prismacolor premier 005, a Farber-Castell B, or Higgens India ink. it all really depends on the Line-weights I'm trying to achieve.

Next up I painted the background. Recently this has just consisted of a colored circle. It's not only crazy easy, and simple, but I think it's pretty effective in offsetting the piece without being distracting, or a time-suck....Perfect!
In painting these, I use .50 acrylic from the local craft store. It's cheap, doesn't ripple my paper, and dries quickly, so a jackass like me won't spear it when he runs his hand through it....and I always do. (It's hard to believe I have a successful second career as a pinstriper/signpainter/pinup painter, but I do!)

After that's done, It's time to move on to greyscaling. for this I use only the best...8 year old Tria markers I bought for my Visual Communications class at Gnomon...I don't think I used them more than twice since then, until a couple of months ago. Tria markers are amazing. Some people like prismacolor markers, and I've used them...heck I have a drawer full of them, but my heart's with Tria. They blend better, they come with 3 tip-sizes on one marker, and hell, they've lasted me 8 years....So, my money's with Tria.

Next up was the shading with the tria markers. I just go over the points I want shaded after the original pass has dried, with the same marker.
-It makes the perfect level of shading.

Normally I'd call that about done, but on this project, the client requested purple tailed mermaids, and, since I am not in the business of telling clients "no" I used crayola watercolor to ad the purple.

It's not called "Not selling art" People.You do what the client asks.

 Finish up with a few little touches to shading,

Then it was just a matter of using a razor, and ruler to cut it out.

I hope you found this enlightening...or at least entertaining.

-Fin.