Finally finished the acrylic painting of C3P0 – the protocol droid that I loved so much and grew up with after watching the Star Wars movies. I have drawn the droid since when I was a kid, about 12, when I saw a picture of it in a magazine or on a poster, I couldn’t remember now. I remembered I took it and started drawing C3P0 and R2D2 on my exercise book, now lost and I have no idea where it went, most probably thrown away. After 30 years, I have the means and the capability to draw and paint the robot again. Here’s the process and the final painting. The final painting was done in acrylics, and measuring 40cm X 50cm, on canvas (unframed).

I began with a rough on a piece of canvas that I tacked on a wooden board. Done very loosely with acrylics, Burnt Sienna.

I wanted to make the painting more contemporary so I decided to use a rather different colour to paint, without following the reference too closely.

  The above shows a rather finished painting indicating the main lights and shadows, which I used mainly yellow, vermillion, van dyke brown and some indigo to give me a mixture of warm and cool tones. My initial decision to keep the portrait painting more textural and flatter tonal values. I also wanted to keep it less finished. In the end after looking at it for a couple of days, I decided to add another layer of light and specular to the metallic surface.

I am glad I did that as the highlights made the subject pops a little more and showed the metallic lustre. I also matted and dulled some of the yellow areas on the body so they don’t draw attention away from the face. Other paintings of Star Wars characters: