Sir Kofi and King Woods: Royal Portrait
Acrylic, watercolor and ink on 14" x 17" bristol board
Artwork by Rob Schamberger
Well, this Sir Kofi and King Woods piece was sure crazy fun to make! I had the concept hit me to put their heads on classic royal portraits and great googly moogly did this come out exactly as I'd envisioned it. Fits perfectly with Woods and Kof, right?
Instead of painting it traditionally to match how the original portraits were done, I instead wanted it to look more like a color plate from a mid-1900's encyclopedia. So I applied the color first with liquid acrylic paint, which creates a water-resistant surface. Because of that, when I come in next with black watercolor and ink-wash, they pool on top rather than mixing in, so that when they dry the pigment left creates a unique look on top of the colored surface. It's an interesting way to build value and I've enjoyed experimenting with it.
I felt doing a straight-ahead piece brings the whole concept together more than if I threw in a bunch of silly-fun elements, doing the joke seriously. That said, yes there's indeed a unicorn in there for keen-eyed observers!