This painting is inspired by Rick and Morty and the Solar Eclipse that we had back in August. I had the extreme fortune of attending the 7 day Global Eclipse Gathering in Oregon where I got to watch the eclipse in complete totality with over 40 thousand festival goers. It was a truly magical experience. I plan to write a post all about my amazing time there but for now I want to focus on my painting inspired by it. The idea for this painting came to me during the actual eclipse. I have this classic scene from the show Rick and Morty on a backpack and as I was watching the solar eclipse it was propped up on my feet so it wouldn't get super dusty. As I was getting comfortable I looked down and realized it looked like Rick and Morty were watching it with me as well! I just had to laugh and instantly thought I MUST PAINT THIS!!!! So when I got home thats exactly what I did! I will share with you now some of the process of the painting.
With the company of my kitty Orion, I started off painting the eclipse and the sky. I looked at pictures I have seen from the festival.. My favorite one was taken by a friend of mine named Jamal Eid, that featured not only the beautiful and unreal solar eclipse but also the Solar Temple that was constructed for the festival as well as an excited crowd of people. I wanted to make my sky similar to the one in his picture but more close to the colors of skies I've seen in the show.
Next I started painting my freehanded Rick and Morty drawing...
and then I outlined them with Posca Markers.
Once Rick and Morty were outlined, I painted the Solar Temple, some hot air balloons I saw at the festival, and my first character in the crowd, Morty's sister Summer. When I add new things, first I paint them in all white and then start painting the colors after, that way the colors still pop.
I paint each feature in the character one by one, sometimes leaving tiny spaces in between or making certain parts less opaque so it's not just a big white blob and it's easier to fill in with color after.
To do the outlines of the smaller characters I used a very fine point pen (0.1)
I'm actually new to using copic and posca markers and am much more comfortable with a paint brush, so this was a fun and exciting challenge for me.
Pictured above is the backpack that sparked my idea, the original painting, and a print of my painting. If you would like a print they are still available here!
If you've made it this far, thank you very much! I hope you enjoyed my post! I'm happy to hear critiques and to answer any questions you guys have. Lets start a discussion! :)
