Clockwork Moon

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[Image ID] A clockwork moon on a purple watercolour background. The moon is done with watercolour in a mixture of orange, yellow and brown tones to suggest it is made of metal. Various cogs, chains, dials and a small smoking chimney on it, as well as a key for winding it up, make up the clockwork elements. [description end]

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Although I like the style, I haven’t drawn many steampunk illustrations. I painted the base layer of yellows and purple one evening, and came back to draw in the detail the next day. I pencilled out the details before going over the sketch with a sepia fineliner, but I didn’t particularly plan them out. Instead, I simply began drawing steampunk inspired details near the top and slowly worked around the moon drawing whatever took my fancy. Once everything had been penned in, I added another layer of watercolour to darken certain areas and bring out the details. I also added little yellow splatters across the page. After the second layer of paint had dried, I enhanced the details further with a white gel pen; this is also how I created the white sparkles surrounding the moon.

When I started this piece I envisioned it becoming more mixed media, involving metallic paints and textural pastes, but in the end all I used was watercolour and pen. This happens sometimes, although I can start a piece with a specific idea or method in mind, sometimes in the moment a different technique ends up working instead.

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Watercolour paints: Windsor & Newton Cotman

Watercolour paper: Daler Rowney Aquafine smooth

Fineliner pen: Fabre-Castell Pitt Artist pen in small

White gel pen: Sakura Gelly Roll in 0.5

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