“Steampunk Fairy” Colored pencil on Strathmore toned paper.
Above is “Steampunk Fairy,” an illustration I created for a show back in September of 2020 with two other local artists, called simply “Steampunk!” Rita Hill, Elsa Bates, and I wanted this show to be larger than life and filled to the brim with imagination.
Planning on graph paper.
I go back and forth on how I prefer to plan out pieces. It usually depends on both my mood and the mood of the piece. For “Steampunk Fairy,” I first sketched out a tiny version of the idea in my very well worn binder of graph paper. I love graph paper for planning. Something about the very structured format of the paper itself distracts from the artist’s block inducing “blank page” phenomenon. I also prefer drawing ideas with mechanical pencils. I think it helps (me at least) to make the planning process ultra-structured so the actual process of building the piece can really take off into the ether of imagination - kind of like making a kite with painstaking precision so it can fly in the air without a care in the world.
Cleaning up the lines.
My next step is to take the planning sketch and transfer it, either via tracing paper (usually taped to our back window for light), transfer paper, or - if the sketch is smaller than the original I want to create - by eyeballing it. Such was the method for this piece! Pictured above is one of my favorite simple tools, a battery powered motorized eraser. I like using this to get rid of pencil lines if I've inked over them.
Inking in additional detail.
After I got rid of the pencil lines, I thought the drawing looked a little empty. Somehow it was lacking the intricate detail and sort of clockwork complexity I wanted to convey. Maybe I just needed to see part of it in color? I filled in the fairy’s goggles, the part I had been looking forward to the most. It still looked empty. As I mulled over the piece, staring thoughtfully at the golden goggles, I realized I was missing a great opportunity in the fairy’s wings - they were the perfect way for the steampunk theme to shine. I added clusters of cogs and wheels, already knowing as I drew them that they would be the same gold color as the goggles. Then of course I had to ink again!
Wings detail.
The fairy’s wings quickly became my new favorite part of the drawing. I decided to ink them in brown rather than the black of the rest of the piece.
Choosing the palette.
Next it was time to decide on color. I knew I wanted the wings to be gold like the goggles, and the wand should probably match - but what about the rest? I finally chose to keep it simple and stick to a duotone palette. I’ve always loved working in complementary colors, so I went with purple for the remainder of the fairy figure.
All filled in!
I really enjoyed the pattern of the dress and I had fun playing up the stripes. Next came the skin tones and the details on the face (always my favorite) and, finally, the hair. That was actually my most difficult choice in the whole piece. Should she be blonde? No, that would overshadow the gold touches. Brunette? It didn’t seem dramatic enough. But fully black hair seemed too plain. Then I realized that my fairy’s hairstyle reminded me of the Bride of Frankenstein. Once I saw that resemblance, I decided to play up the stripes in the hair too! After that I added a bit of darker gray to the background on the lower half of the piece, and — boom! All done.
“Steampunk Fairy” Colored pencil on Strathmore toned paper.