Tonal Study For Brave New World

I used to do tonal studies in charcoal but recently I've been experimenting in photoshop to get the same results, sometimes better.

First off I work up a detailed rough in pencil as normal and then scan it in. Once I have the image in Photoshop I turn up the levels and ghost the pencil layer. Ghost is a filter effect I found on flaming pear and it has been so useful over the years that I don't know how I managed without it. The Ghost filter means I can paint underneath the pencil image as if it is on a piece of tracing paper. This makes it incredibly easy to fill the image with a mid grey and then add highlights and shadows just like a charcoal drawing on toned paper and as an extra bonus the original line-work is always available on a separate layer.

 

The end result is so useful when it comes to keeping control of values on the final painting. However I can't take all the credit because I got the idea for this process after viewing this post by Dan Dos Santos.

The Alchemist

 The Alchemist

Watercolour & Gouache

31 x 24cm

Completed this morning, and I'm reasonably happy with the final product, especially the lighting. To help me along I created a very simple set with elaborate lighting (a lamp minus the shade) in my living room, put the camera on a timer, threw a blanket over my shoulders and posed inside ten seconds. Going the extra mile for reference can make a huge difference and save time in the long run because you can be confident throughout the painting process.

The Alchemist (Progress)

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

 

I plan to finish this on Monday. Wish me luck!

Brave New World Roughs

The Folio Society is running a competition to illustrate 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. Click here for more details.

Above you can see the roughs, drawn without reference, for the three scenes I have chosen to illustrate. Previously I had worked up a number of thumbnails before selecting which composition I would like to take forward. Now I have to take photo reference based on these roughs and then develop detailed roughs for each.

RWS Call For Entries 2013

The deadline for this year's RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition is the 9th January. Click here for more details

I hope to enter again this year. I have a large painting in the works at this very moment. You can see my rough sketch below.

I'd say it's about time I did a watercolour of Whitby. The tall ship is the Endeavour replica being tugged from the harbour which will probably be the first of a few fanciful additions to the scene.

I shall post more as I progress.

Autumn Scribe Part. 2

Below you can see more progress photos of 'Autumn Scribe'. As I gradually worked up the local colours I began to give everything more form by working out the light sources and cast shadows.

The lighting is surprisingly complicated in this painting. There is a cool natural back-light, warm candlelight that creates interesting shadows that is not very far reaching and a weak warm light source on the front so that you can see the details in the main character. The last light source probably wouldn't exist in real life but this is fantasy... so there!  

 

Autumn Scribe 

31 x 23cm 

Above is the final painting finished in watercolour with slight highlights in gouache. Below you can see the items that are meaningful to Suzanne I mentioned in my previous post. It was a lot of fun putting these in and it all adds to the narrative of the image.

Autumn Scribe Part.1

As part of my wedding present to Suzanne I wanted to paint her a watercolour based on a similar theme to 'Jacques' Rest'. It didn't take long for me to come up with the main character so I began to work on some thumbnail sketches, I was hoping to post those too but I have mislaid them. In the end I did about six and then developed my favourite, adding another Owl in the background. 

Now that I had a rough composition I could stretch some watercolour paper and draw up a detailed version. I worked with a HB pencil as I knew the painting would be dark covering up pencil marks.

As I drew away the thought came to me to add objects to the setting that are meaningful to Suzanne so I secretly 'borrowed' a few things from around the house to copy them into the final drawing. All the time I was keeping the painting a secret, making sure I covered it with paper at the end of the day and not answering questions regarding the missing items.

The two photos above show the gradual painting process. When I do something as complex as this I tend to outline most things in sepia watercolour before adding local colour and washes. This helps to maintain the detail and add character to edges, such as the frayed corners of old books and gnarled tree bark. 

In my next post I'll show you the completed artwork and details of the 'secret objects'.

Test Illustration Part 2

To follow on from my previous post about my test illustration for the Folio Society, below you can see my first attempt at the finished colour version, executed in watercolour.

All the criteria was met with the above illustration but I felt it wasn't good enough. The sea wasn't particularly well painted and the Merman was flat along with the submerged sharks. I was trying to pull back on detail so I put this failure down to my lack of skill working loosely with watercolour.

After some time of pondering my finished illustration I decided to do another version that was more in my comfort zone. I deliberately concentrated on the shape and form of the Merman and sharks which led to my decision to simplify the sky. I also stylised the sea so that underwater details were easy to see and hopefully didn't complicate the image.

I was much happier with my second version and so was the Folio Society but in the end I still didn't get the seal of approval. Being an illustrator you get used to rejection, it may be depressing on the day you hear but by the next day you have to move on and learn from your mistakes and above all improve.

Test Illustration

Last month I worked on a test illustration for the Folio Society. Although my test wasn't successful and the job was given to a different illustrator afterwards, I would still like to show you what I did.

Without giving too much away I was asked to illustrate a scene in colour taken from a short fairytale which was provided by the Folio Society. The scene I picked was full of characters and very complicated. What can I say, I was probably trying to show off! Below you can see my detailed rough.

There were are at least another three different versions of this composition drawn before I reached the one above. I was struggling to fit all the relevant information in to what would be a small illustration so not surprisingly the art director suggested an alternative scene. Maybe in the future I'll paint this one for my own amusement, I actually think the colour will save it.

Above is the much simpler scene I decided to tackle instead. The main figure (Merman) is prominent and the direction of the narrative is obviously between him and the maiden in the tower. We both agreed to go ahead and paint this idea instead.

Stay tuned for the colour version(s)...

Instructional Videos on Proko.com

I have just recently signed up to proko.com which for me has been a bit of a revelation. The website and videos are made by Stan Prokopenko, an artist and teacher. Proko is a resource for artists to get good art instruction videos, so far Stan has uploaded a selection all about how to draw the head and each important feature. The above video concentrates on the nose and it's structure, it might sound a bit dull but believe me they are very entertaining.