Lesson number four was another lesson in texture. This time I learned how to take a high resolution, textural image and use it to create realistic and interesting textures on a painted image. As per usual, Bobby Chiu is responsible for the drawing and almost all of the color. In this lesson, he taught me how to add in the various textures (the cracked ground, rocky cave and wrinkly skin of the creature). I also painted in some extra wrinkles, hair and drool on the creature.
This started out as just a fun little experiment with my Poscas and it turned out to fit in with this week’s Illustration Friday topic: Focused. So here it is!
I’m enjoying working with the markers, but I wish they had a wider variety of colors. After working with them I may switch to acrylic or give gouache a try one of these days. I love the bright colors and the opacity of the markers, though.
I also did this little doodle. In hindsight I should have left it in black and white, but I’ve learned not to be too precious with these little drawings in order to learn more about techniques that work for me. I think I may be on the verge of finding a style that is well-suited for children.
I’ve been doing so much sketching and doodling lately that I haven’t produced a finished piece in quite a while. Maybe that should be a goal for the weekend? Especially if I plan to have work geared to all ages/adults and work geared to children – neither one should get more attention at this point. Do you have multiple styles?
So, for this lesson I learned how to use a scanned in, traditional texture like stippling or cross-hatching to make a digital drawing look completely traditional. I probably sound like someone who’s never seen Photoshop before, but with each class I’m amazed at these simple little tools and tricks that can turn a good painting into a great painting.
Once again, I want to make sure that Bobby Chiu gets all of the credit for the drawing itself. He supplied the original line drawing and the textures and I used them to shade it so that the line drawing was no longer necessary. Bobby has a much lighter touch than I do and his ability to create subtle details out of light and shadow is something I aspire too, but I’m a little heavy handed as it is now.
This is a doodle I did the other night with my Posca markers. I keep using the markers on the wrong kind of paper, but I thought this little guy turned out nicely. He’s also been added to the Draw A Dinosaur a Day group on Flickr.
Journal 1/28/2008
So, I just rounded off a series of very busy and exhausting weeks! Aside from my day job and my personal life I’ve been hard at work on a couple of client projects as well as my digital painting class. Yesterday I finished off the client projects so now I can concentrate on my class and on creating more personal work. The freedom feels great for now! I’m also gearing up for a larger project I can’t talk about, but I can say that it is a fantastic opportunity and I want to make sure my plate is cleared so I can really focus on it.
You can read my ramblings above and see that I’m doing a bit of experimenting with markers and Posca paint markers. As I’ve said before, I’m working on developing a style that will be directed towards the children’s market because I think that is where I would ultimately like to end up.
The Renmen Project was recently launched and is a cause that I would like to support whole-heartedly. The devastating earthquake in Haiti has left so many without food, water, or shelter and I think it’s important that we all do what we can to help a nation that doesn’t have the power to help all who need it.
The Renmen Project
A project in aid of UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Emergency Fund
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Project description
Renmen’ is the Haitian word for Love, the bird in the logo is the Hispaniolan Trogon, the national bird of Haiti. ‘The Renmen Project’ has been brought together by the team at Thunder Chunky and Ben The Illustrator in order to raise funds for UNICEF’s Haiti Earthquake Children’s Appeal.
Throughout 2010 we will be working with a selection of top artists and designers from around the world to create artwork which we will be selling online. Every penny made from art sales will be going to Unicef’s appeal fund.
The web address for the project is:
http://www.therenmenproject.co.uk
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Staying up to date
As soon as we add new artists to the line up and new items to the shop, we will send the details out to the special Renmen Project mailing list. There’s a form to sign up for it over on the official Renmen Project site:
http://www.therenmenproject.co.uk
Thank you so much for your support, we really, really appreciate it, and fingers crossed we raise a whole bunch of money for a desperate cause.
Finally, if you’d like more information of UNICEF’s Emergency Fund then go to:
http://www.unicef.org.uk/give/index.asp?page=32
Take care
The Renmen Project team!
Their first offering is a hand drawn sketch on parchment paper by Ben the Illustrator. They are on sale now! Each one sold will provide a family with a basic water kit. Please check them out and get involved! If you’ve bee thinking about donating and haven’t found the right fund or just haven’t gotten around too it, now’s the time!
Follow them on Twitter
Journal 1/27/2010
I loved the Illustration Friday topic this week: Clumsy. It sounded like so much fun! Unfortunately I didn’t have the time I would have liked to devote to this topic. I did, however, find the time to do this little sketch. I took a page out of Pascal Campion’s book and tried to add some anticipation.
This was a case of a bad choice of materials. I used a Faber-Castell brush pen, which just isn’t the best pen for me. I also used it on a previous Illustration Friday piece. Every time I’ve used the brush pen, I’m just not happy with it. I need something with a finer line and a little more control. I’ve ordered a Tachikawa pen that I’m very excited to try out. I love using dip pens, but they can be a bit inconvenient for sketching and they aren’t very portable. Hopefully this pen will give me the line quality I want with the portability and ease of a regular felt tip pen.
San Francisco based illustrator, Pascal Campion is officially one of new my favorite illustrators. I found him via Twitter and I am always excited when he posts new work.
Pascal’s gorgeous compositions have an intimate feel whether he is depicting a quiet family moment or a bustling city crowd. As if the images weren’t powerful enough, his use of light is breathtaking and creates an inner glow that I have never seen before.
I finally finished my second digital painting lesson on colorizing from a black and white image. This drawing was done completely by Bobby Chiu, including the shading. With this lesson I learned how to apply cover over a drawing that had been shaded similarly to the piece from the previous lesson. This lesson taught me so much about Photoshop that I didn’t know – and the way lesson 3 is progressing, I think that will be quite common. The techniques I’ve been learning will definitely start showing up in my work. I received a grade of 4 out of 5 stars and the last lesson, and I’m pretty pleased with the work I did on this one. I do see some areas where I should have been more careful and took a little more time, but I’ve also been tight on time and for me, learning the lesson and the technique is much more important than the grade. I can’t wait to have time to work on original pieces this way!
Journal 1-20-10
This is a carrot. A very angry carrot. I’m not totally sure where he came from, but here he is. I thought of this at work when someone used the phrase “the carrot pant” (I have no idea what they mean by that) and then he appeared in my Moleskine. The color was done with some Tombow art markers, but they don’t work that well on Moleskine paper. Even though the color came out a little weird, I still like the drawing. I’m also starting to loosen up with my sketchbook stuff and just let strange ideas flow. I need to experiment more when I get new art materials in order to find what works best for me, so this is only the beginning of weird, strangely colored drawings!
