Steampunk Spaceship 2

As I mentioned last post, I am working up a little piece that I can paint at a charity quick draw auction tomorrow night. I have never been particularly fast as a painter, so in order to ensure that I can finish, I know I need to get a good start beforehand. I pulled one ship from the sketch in the previous post and redrew it. I changed some of the proportions and details, like adding a smokestack. Smokestacks are totally incongruous with space travel, I know, but fun nonetheless. I then took the sketch into Photoshop and did some basic coloring. The second image is what I call my "digital under painting".

I intentionally keep the contrasts low and the values darker than normal so that I can bring up the highlights with paint. I then print this out on my 13" x 19" Epson printer, mount it on a board and paint over the top.  I do this often to save painting time as I can get certain effects like the smooth gradient in the background much faster and easier than I can physically paint it.. Some ask why I bother, why not just finish it digitally? Well, first off, I love paint. I love the tactile interaction I get while painting. I love the organic quality, I love the incidentals and "accidents",  I love the fact that there is a physical artifact left over after the process. Don't mistake my comments as a knock against digital work. I am still diligently trying to learn to paint with pixels as I believe it is a valuable skill, but there is something in keeping up with actual painting that I know will make me a better digital painter- eventually. I'll post more as this project moves along.