Over the past month I have completed a few illustrations for Copeland Publishing’s parenting magazines (Melbourne Child, Sydney Child). This is a one of two illustrations for an article entitled ‘The Tyranny of Distance’ for the April 2010 issue.
In it a mum writes about how her three year old daughter connects with her young cousins who visit briefly from Italy.
Many of the magazine’s illustrations are in a cartoon style but for this one the editor Sean wanted to go for a more naturalistic, concept-based approach.
I decided to focus on the girl and show her in a reflective mood maybe thinking about her cousins who had just left on their long trip back home
I have roughly outlined my process below from thumbnails to final art.
The completed illustration.
My final pencil drawing that i scanned in at 600 ppi and then reduced to 300 ppi. I cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop and it was all ready to colour.
My final rough sketches. I was getting closer to the want I wanted with the one on the right. A sort of combination of my reference photos.
More developed roughs. A bit too close to my photo reference (left) so I went for a more impressionistic look (right).
Early sketches working from my reference.
This photo of a girl with her reflection was my main inspiration. Love the wistful contemplative expression. I wanted to get a similar feeling in the drawing. Photo reference from Flickr.
Thumbnails showing various compositions. Originally thought of including the Mother.
Sorry for the delay in updating but I was plagued with some major computer problems. Anyway it was finally resolved this week by having a new hard drive installed in my iMac. Everything working well now.
Here is my first submission for Illustration Friday. This week’s topic is “focused”.
Medium: Col Erase blue pencil, Pentel brush pen on detail paper.
Rough sketches.
These girls were inspired by the look of Sixties singers like Helen Shapiro, Ronnie Spector and Dusty Springfield.
Medium: PITT oil based pencil and watercolours/acrylics on 230gsm watercolour paper
These are my rough development sketches. First I drew the basic pose (left) then on detail paper refined and stylised it further (right).
Method: After I was happy with my refined sketch I transferred it via light box onto watercolour paper using blue Col Erase pencil. Went over the blue line with a Pitt oil based pencil (extra soft). They work well on watercolour paper. Painted using W&N watercolours (pan set) with a little opaque acrylic on the dress, shoes and the gloves.
Here’s the finished Mother and Child painting. For varnish I first put a coat of acrylic sealer (water based, non-removable) and then two coats of gloss varnish (oil based, removable). I will let it dry for a week then take it off the frame.
Here are some progress photos of the Mother & Child painting I have been working on over the past few months. I began in May but this early attempt wasn’t working out. Out of sheer frustration I gesso’d over the top and started again.
I redrew her completely (shortened the length of her lower half, put the baby in profile and simplified the landscape). Finally it looked a little better.
Now it’s almost complete. I just need to add some leaves blowing across which will give it a better sense of movement.
Here you can see my first rough sketches.
Mother & Child, Acrylic on canvas. 24” by 48”
The latest version (above). October 2009.
This is after I redrew it. The red hair turned out to be bit over powering so she became a blonde. September 2009.
Just before I gesso’d over it and started again. June 2009.
My first effort. May 2009.
A rough sketch inspired by Jane Fonda’s classic pose from Cat Ballou.
Having co-illustrated the Fighting Fantasy book “Caverns of the Snow Witch” way back in 1984, Dave from fightingfantasygamebooks.com kindly contacted me for an interview. Check it out here
Here’s a few drawings of Princess Leia from my sketchbook. I usually begin by roughing out the figure with blue Col-erase blue pencil . I do this very lightly. Erasing heavy Col-erase marks leaves a waxy residue on the paper that’s hard to draw over.
Once I am happy with the lines I go over them with an HB pencil. Most of the drawings here have been inked with a sable brush. The one of her standing with arms folded was sort of inspired by the inking style of Darwyn Cooke.
This one was sketched out with a Faber Castell Tri-grip colour pencil which gives a nice deep black. Scanned it in at 24 bit colour RGB, 600 ppi. In Photoshop I adjusted levels, cleaned it up and placed the line work on transparent layer. Then reduced it to 300ppi.
I usually add colour with adjustments layers and masks but this time I painted directly on transparent layers. I was inspired by some Photoshop painting tutorials by illustrator Chris Oatley. I also used a set of his brushes that can be downloaded from his site. You can get them here.
Once I added the colour I couldn’t resist turning into a Little Red Riding Hood, albeit a heavily armed one. I usually scan the drawing at 600 dpi convert to bitmap mode and do all my clean up. Once thats done I re-sample it down to 300 dpi at A4 size. When I colour in Photoshop I focus on one area at a time, making adjustment layers for the base colour, shadows and highlights.
I have been doing some inking practice with a sable brush. The trick is to hold the brush as you would a pencil. Place your fingers around the ferrule (which is the metal bit between the hairs and the wooden handle). This makes the brush much easier to control and you can draw thin to thick and curving lines with one smooth movement of the hand. I also was constantly moving the paper around at different angles as i inked.
I learnt much of this from a great little video on inking by the comic artists Mark Rudolph and Jerzy Drozd on their site Art and Story. It’s an extraordinary resource for anyone interested in making comics http://www.cvcomics.com/artandstory/
Check out their inking video here
