November 28 -- 2nd sleeve begins.
Once again, we returned to the studios of world traveling artist Scott Ellis. He's spent most of the last six months hopscotching Europe. I was happy to know ahead of time that he'd be back in Austin Texas for a few week -- plenty of time to start sleeve #2.
Scott suggested we try a Phoenix for this sleeve. Seemed to fit well with the dragon. Here is his notebook prior to my arriving:
As before, Scott creates the design in freehand. Took him about 3.25 hours. And as before, he was ever the perfectionist -- at one point an hour in wiping off my arm and starting again because he felt the bird's head was an inch off from where he wanted it.
As we progress, Scott goes through about four layers, increasing the detail with ever more fine brushes along the way.
Below are layer #3 and #4:
Taken in mirror:
And at least, we ink! 2.5 hours of linework.
Unfortunately, Scott is back off to Europe... so no shading stage until April. That's okay, it is worth the wait to be worked on by a master.