Gnome Pollinator

 Last year when I had some inked commission slots open, a fan asked for a Gnome gathering flowers while interacting with the bees who were drawn to the smell of the pollen.

I was thrilled to get to play in the world of Gnomes again. Years ago in 2017 I participated in a month-long draw challenge called Gnomevember (You can see the several posts about it here: 

http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/search/label/Gnome)

Today's post is about the process of creating the art you see to the left.

But, before we do, I wanted to let all of you know that you can purchase my Gnomevember art (including the piece I'm showing today) through my Society6 page: 

https://society6.com/davidpetersen

There you can get framed prints, pillows, greeting cards, phone cases, totebags, coffee mugs, comforters, clocks, credenzas and more––all with my gnome art.

To start this Gnome commission, I drew out the gnome, basket, and bees all separately on copy paper. Then I scanned them into Photoshop to resize and assemble them into a single working composition. I tinted the gnome and the basket pencil art different colors to help me see them and make sense of which lines belonged to which objects. 

I then did a quick digital color blocking of the forms I'd already drawn, as well as painting in the flowers, spots for a few more bees, and notes for the background. I printed out this digital workup to move on to the next stage.

I physically inked the piece on a Hunion light pad. By taping the above printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol, I'm able to see the printout as a guide on the lightpad as I ink. For the inks themselves, I used Copic SP Multiliners (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs mainly)

Some of the inking was tricky because I only had my rough digital painting to go by––and it's been long enough I don't remember if I did any additional penciling on things like the flowers or the bee on the rock, or if I just inked those with no guide.

The fan who commissioned me was sent the original inks for the piece. But, before Julia shipped it off, I'd scanned the inks to do a digital color job for my own purposes.

The first step of which is to lay in flat color for each form. It's a professional version of color-in-the-lines. At this stage I also established all my color holds (areas where I want the inkwork to be a color other than black) like the wings of the bees or the background flowers.

The last step was to do the final rendering of the colors. I used the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop to do this, adding highlights and shadows and texture where necessary to make the image feel complete.

As I said above, this piece is available as a print (and several other forms) on my Society 6 Gnome page:

https://society6.com/davidpetersen

Gnomevember in Color

In 2017 I did a drawing-a-day for Gnomevember.  I've shared these pieces inked and a few in color in the past--but here for the first time, are all 30 pieces in color. I've edited them together with some music by Kevin MacLeod. Below you can watch the video and further down this blogpost see all 30 individual colored pieces. Happy Gnomevember!

Gnomevember

Direct link on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Q-hZeX6QVao

I have also made most of these pieces available as prints, mugs, greeting cards, stickers, clocks, coasters, bedding, curtains, towels, phone-cases, tote bags, credenzas, and much more through my Society6 Gnomevember page:
society6.com/davidpetersen/

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Gnomevember 2017 Re-Visit...

November of last year I participated in 'GNOMEVEMBER'. Not only had I never heard about it before I saw Becky Cloonan tweeting in late October of her plans to participate, but I'd never done a one-a-day for a month event like "INKTOBER' or 'DRAWTOBER'. So it was a challenge for-sure! It was also at a time when I was under a lot of personal stress and I found that making the space each day to try and get one Gnome drawn helped a lot. Sometimes I fell behind, sometimes I drew elaborate scenes or larger pieces, other times I drew something simple or small to help not bog me down and get back to the pressures of the day.

Over the last year I've been coloring my Gnomevember pieces for fun--and with the idea that we may do some type of prints/products with them (which still may happen--stay tuned). But for now, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I wanted to share these with you not just to say I'm thankful for the experience I had drawing and coloring these wee folk--but that I'm more thankful for my fans who enjoyed and supported me through their creation and the difficult times they were created in.

I've opened a little Popup Shop for my #GNOMEVEMBER pieces over on Society6 for the holidays! Prints, Coasters, Stationary Cards, Totes, Travel Mugs & More: https://society6.com/davidpetersen

A Smoking Gnome.

A Garden Gnome.

A Woodcutter Gnome.

A Cooking Gnome.

A Knight Gnome.

A Young (for a Gnome) Artist Gnome

named David.

A Harvesting Gnome on the Run.

Playing the Lute.

A Lantern Gnome.

Elder Gnome with Death's Head Moth.

Siberian Gnome.

A sprig of pine and a spot of tea.

Oaken Staffed Gnome.

Hiding in the Berries.

Royal Gnomes.

Starting a Window.

Engagement.

 A Gnome & Her Marionette

The End.

Not all of my GNOMEVMEBER pieces are colored, if you want a look at all of last year's Gnomes:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2017/12/gnomevember-2017.html