Artwork reveal and painting process: ‘Coquelicot I – The Wolf’

Have you been waiting eagerly to set your eyes on the ink paintings I’ve teased a few weeks ago? Here is the first one! The second will soon follow :) For now, enjoy some steps of the creation process of ‘The Wolf’!

Link to sneak peek post

Link to ‘The Wolf’ in the shop

First, a light sketch using a Col-Erase pencil (I tried to enhance the contrast… That’s the best I could do as the sketch was really quite light ;)). I’m pretty happy with how I conveyed the mood and style I had in mind, with the help of the quick thumbnail I had captured (which I showed in an earlier post).

Wolf outline in pen and ink (colour ‘Lilly’).

Cautiously painting one field poppy at a time in wet-on-wet technique with ‘Deep Dark Orange’ ink, so deep that it’s rather red – a perfect colour for poppies actually. ‘Coquelicot’ is the French name of field poppies, and in English describes that colour :)

As opposed to the Rohrer&Klingner ink, the Diamine one is not waterproof, so I have to plan my steps carefully.

It’s starting to take shape.

Then, disaster! 😅️

Half an hour later, most of the damage is contained, and my desk has new, “interesting” marks 😁️

I can proceed outlining the poppies with the pen and red ink. I find it’s lacking something and add details to the leaves with a small brush (also in red).

Filling the dark background gives the final look, as I had envisioned it :)

To make the original artwork extra special, I like to add something that cannot be reproduced by printing. In this case I decided to use the handmade watercolours from Le Pigmentarium which I got last Christmas, to add some sparkle on some of the twigs ✨️. These two colours have a metallic sheen, and the rose gold one has a shift – depending on the light it becomes a greenish gold 🤩️.

Still some boring stuff to do:

  • Scan the finished piece (before cutting, so that the excess paint can be used to maybe print at full bleed some day :)).
  • Cut to size (5″ x 7″ / 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm).

That’s it, yay!

Are you picturing this piece of traditional art on your wall? It is now available for sale in my shop :)

If you have any questions about the process or the artwork, send me an email at hello@reinekurth.com, I’d be happy to chat about it!

One reply on “Artwork reveal and painting process: ‘Coquelicot I – The Wolf’”