Bono U2 Watercolor Speed Painting

Once again I find myself painting Bono for you. I was shaky about this one for almost the entire painting process, but once I untaped the painting from my board and looked at it, I shivered. :) Stay tuned to the end of the video to see Actual Bono looking at my work. !!!!!

I've been a U2 fan since 1983, and I work for atu2.com, a U2 site that has been around for over two decades. I create its U2 comic and have done so since 2002, so at this point painting Bono is almost second nature to me, but they continue to make me improve as a painter. This one is part of my upcoming comic that I am still working on as of today. The name of the cartoon is Achtoon Baby, and someone else came up with that title long before I started doing it. I kind of hate the name, but what can you do?

Achtoon Baby can be found here:
https://www.atu2.com/achtoon/
Again, the latest one that includes the painting seen here was not finished as I created this video, but I recommend you take a look at "The Band You Love" and "My U2 G.A. Experience." They are two of my favorites.

This painting took over four hours to create, so to edit it down to a manageable length, I had to speed it up quite a bit (40x!). I hope this might give you a glimpse into my painting process.

My reference photo is from Peter Hutchins (@peterhutchins on IG), who kindly gave me permission to paint it. Since I can't go to a whole lot of shows and my phone camera is not capable of capturing anything this good, I sift through all U2-related social media to find reference photos I can use for my cartoon, and this was one of the best I've seen this year. Thanks a lot, Peter!

Thanks also to my atu2 pals Sherry Lawrence, Mason Merritt, U2 concert fixture Vid (@mysteriousdays on Twitter) for sending me the video, and Ye Olde Bonoe Himselfe for doing the thing that happens at the end. I am still highly amazed by all of it. While I would love to meet Bono myself, seeing him acknowledge my work meant the world to me.

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Colors used: cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red light, magenta, phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, blue deep, and dioxazine mauve, all by Old Holland. Opera by Holbein. Cobalt blue by Winsor & Newton (Cotman range; I just like how warm it is compared with other cobalts I've tried).

Paper: 8"x10" 140 lb. cold-press watercolor paper by Arches.

Masking fluid: Incredible White Mask Liquid Frisket

Brushes: #1 American Painter 4000 round, #1 round by Utrecht, #1 round by Creative Mark's Mimik Kolinsky range, #6 #10 #12 round brushes by Escoda Perla Sintetico. 3/4" flat brush by Sax. Messed up #6 round brush by Loew-Corning (used on his jacket to blend colors).

Preliminary drawing: 4H drawing pencil by Derwent.

Palette: Eldajon from Jerry's Artarama

Music: "Groove Grove" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Music: 36122413: Dramatic, Determined & Inspirational (Ambient Instrumental Background) by Ricky Valadez
Music at at Pond 5 https://www.pond5.com