For this self-promotion piece I went with a circus theme. My initial idea was to have a monster or creature standing behind the ringmaster with only it’s huge feet visible. That didn’t work because you couldn’t tell what you were looking at. Changing it to ape and revealing more of the leg made things clearer. I like the idea that you can only see a part of the ape and it adds to a sense of scale.
As for the style, my inspiration was mostly UPA animation and picture books from the 1950’s. I kept the drawing pretty simple with just enough rendering to show the form. Definitely tried to get away from the painterly look. You can see my development work below.
Redrew the ringmaster making him shorter and fatter and more cartoon like. The creature turned into an ape which seemed to fit the scene better.
My first attempt at the ringmaster (right) had him tall and elegant. In fact he looks more like an equestrian sportsman. I wasn’t sure what do with the creature either. I scrapped this version and started again.
The sketch on the left hand side is my initial drawing. (pencil/marker on photocopy paper). I then used detail paper to refine and tighten the drawing. (right)
Here’s my final acrylic painting of Tiki Girl. I am quite happy how it turned out because I wanted to combine a stylised figure with some realism. The major changes I made were to the background and the wooden Tiki carving.
The yellow-orange sun burst (see my final colour rough below) overpowered the whole image so it was toned down to a more subtle sunset. I added some cool blues to further recede the background.
I also redesigned the Tiki carving to be less angular. That area was first painted with a dark tone (mix Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue) and then the form was highlighted with Burnt Sienna using a scrubbing technique with a dry brush.
Once the painting was complete it was sealed with acrylic binder medium and two coats of gloss varnish.
Tiki Girl: Acrylic on canvas. 30cm x 40cm (12″ x 16″).
My final colour rough. Here’s a more polished version of the same Tiki Girl sketch with the black line work cleaned up. Coloured and painted in Photoshop. (Above)
I am submitting a painting to a local art show next month. Have played around with various subjects but finally settled on this Tiki inspired pin-up girl. Here are some preliminary sketches and a colour rough. The final painting will be acrylics on canvas, 30cm x 40cm.
Final pencil drawing – PITT oil based pencil on Bristol paper. Size: 28cm x 36cm.
Rough sketch on detail paper Size: A4.
Col-Erase blue pencil on detail paper.
Brush and ink sketches.
Final pencil drawing on Bristol board. (Above)
Refining the sketch on detail paper. (Above)
Initial sketches on scrap paper. (Above)
Here’s an illustration I did back in March for Melbourne’s Child magazine. It appears in this month’s issue (May 2010). The article is entitled “Kids Birthday Parties – a survival guide for parents” and gives advice and tips on how to organise a kid’s birthday party.
The author states that the key to a successful party is planning and organisation but one sentence really stood out. “I’m a teacher and tend to run birthday parties with military precision…”
Words, such as enlist, survival, strategy also appear making the analogy that organising a kid’s party is not unlike running a military campaign.
This gave me the idea of showing a mum and a couple of adults serving at the party wearing army uniforms. This evolved into them wearing everyday clothes that looked a bit military. The WWII helmet became a stack hat, Mum wore a bandolier with crayon ammunition and a teenage son was armed and dangerous with a super soaker.
Here you can see my early sketches and a few thumbnails. I usually work out my composition on scrap paper at 13cm by 18cm. Once I am happy with the rough sketch I begin refining the drawing with overlays of detail paper. Sometimes it helps to do certain parts of the drawing separately. I did this with the kids hands..
After my final detail paper drawing I transfer it via light box to Bristol board using Col Erase blue pencil. I draw over that with HB lead and the darker PITT oil based pencil. The drawing is then scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop where colour is added.
I am pretty happy to have illustrated this month’s story in Australian Woman’s Weekly (March 2010).
The story entitled Ambush is about a wife who finds out that her husband and faithful dog (Ambush) have been involved in a road accident. The husband is an old hippie type who loves riding around the neighborhood on his Harley with Ambush in a sidecar.
I began my rough sketches with trying out various compositions but the side on view seemed to be the strongest. The subject seemed to lend itself to a very definite foreground (dog in sidecar), mid-ground (man on bike) and background (stormy sky and lake) arrangement.
These three levels would also be emphasised by colour, with brighter colours to the fore and cooler colours making the background recede.
When i came to do my final pencil drawing i also treated each element (Man on bike, Dog in sidecar etc) separately and assembled them on layers in Photoshop. This gave total control with placement and i could easily change the sky.
Below you see the various stages.
Artwork assembled in Photoshop ready to be coloured (above).
Final pencil drawing on watercolour paper (above).
Colour rough that was approved by the client (above).
Rough sketches (above).
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.
