This was another fun exercise that I was pleased to complete at the start of this module, it really managed to get me back in the swing of things. I have explored mixing digital and analogue processes in the past, but I haven't had a lot of space to do so recently. For most of my last module, I was contained to try to create almost exclusively digitally.
Reflecting on previous experiments and what I noticed from my earlier research tasks I have noticed that I enjoy layers and textures. I still don't think that I've found a natural way to incorporate them in my work, so I was keen to try and let go and experiment. Overall the illustrations were to involve the theme of "Hybrid".
Illustration One: Draw - Scan - Colour
The instructions for the first illustration were to go from analogue to digital. I have been watching the Netflix adaptation of the graphic novel "Sweet Tooth" with my family. In the comic and the serial a central premise are the emergence of 'hybrid' children who are born with the features of different animals as well as their human characteristics. The illustration style of the comics is quite stark. The streaming serial has its own aesthetic which works well too, so while watching together I decided to sketch my interpretation of the main character - a boy named "Gus".
This ended up being a fun little thing for me to do and is very different to my normal approach to a brief where I would research the topic, brainstorm and try out different ideas. It was fun to let go of that self-expectation and draw for the fun of it. I avoid 'fan art'; on reflection, I think it's because I feel a need for my creations to feel unique in some way. That copying an existing character is somehow cheating. So it was both useful and enjoyable to give myself permission to just create the sketch for the sake of it.
As you can see above, I scanned the sketch into my computer and made some basic adjustments to make the line work stand out. On reviewing the sketch in its new format, I could see that the image seemed skewed. I think this was a result of sketching on my lap while sitting on the sofa with my family. So the next thing I did was to use the digital transform tool to adjust the image slightly, addressing the skew as well as adjusting the shoulders so they seemed to match the angle of the head better.
With the image in a better state, I was able to move on to the last part - colour. I had not come into this with any kind of expectation of how I wanted to add colour to the image. My first inclination was to do the usual 'inking' and 'fill' approach that I would take with a comic. Instead, I first removed the white paper and then placed the sketch on top of a canvas-like texture.
From here I made the conscious decision to stop thinking so much. I picked brush textures at random and simply started laying down the colour quickly. I chose colours in keeping with his character for the shirt, skin and hair, but apart from that I tried to act instinctively. I purposefully kept the sketch on the top layer, making it a feature rather than something to hide or improve.
Once I had the colours down, I continued to just have fun with the image. Once I reminded myself that this was an exercise and 'didn't matter', I felt so much better. I felt free to play and experiment. I tried to add some depth by varying the colours. and then added painterly as well as digital textures to the image.
I enjoyed the textural parts of this image. I am not sure I want to render everything in such a painterly way, and I would like to explore how to add texture to images in a more structured way. Also, while I ended up being fairly happy with the sketch itself, I want to try and push myself to tap into the exaggerated, goofy side of myself more. I think there is more I can do here and need to force myself to push things past where I think they can go. I might well get some things wrong, but I think with practice I can find a way to inject more energy and personality into the work.
Illustration Two: Colour - Print - Draw
For this illustration, I needed to start on the computer and then end up working traditionally. Given that I have been learning how to work traditionally with digital tools, I thought it would be a good opportunity to play with some digital watercolours. Working with the topic, I decided to review mythological creatures, many of which are combinations of real creatures. I decided to try and create an illustration of a chimaera, a mythological Greek creature with the head of a lion, goat and snake (the snake usually being represented as the tail. I opted to use the body of a bull to give the creature an imposing mass.
I researched interpretations of chimaeras in different media. There were a lot of interpretations, so I felt I had a lot of leeway to do what I wanted. I researched reference photos that I could use to get the proportions and details down. I needed to start with colour, so I was conscious to avoid 'drawing' too much with the paintbrush. In fact, I decided to try and work wet-in-wet as much as I could, having fun with the way the colours ran and interacted with each other.
This is by no means the best watercolour ever created, however, I am pleased with the overall composition and I think I managed to get a good sense of movement to the image. I then exported the digital watercolour as an image that I could print out.
I then drew on top of the coloured figures with an ink pen. This allowed me to define the shapes and details of the narrative. I also used a white ink pen in areas where the illustration benefited from it, like animal teeth and metallic reflections.
I think this came out surprisingly well. I enjoy the storytelling in the interaction and I can imagine this illustration accompanying an ancient Greek mythology story. Doing the colour first was interesting - I could make some decisions but given it was watercolour some of the decisions were out of my control and unpredictable. So when it came to the drawing part, I had to work with what was there to make it work.
Illustration Three: Paint/Rub - Scan - Draw
I have been inspired by the rendering technique of Norm Konyu in his graphic novel "The Junction". At the back of the book he added some pages that explore his process a little, so I had some clues as to how he goes about creating his images. A central part is overlaying textures of real and found objects into the shapes that he has created, using negative space to draw as much as the shapes themselves.
So I decided to see if I could start to create a library of textures that I could scan in, optimise and save as a library to draw upon in my illustrations. With my son's help, we experimented with laying down swatches.
We started with acrylic paint on acrylic paper and then moved to watercolour on hot-pressed watercolour paper. Afterwards, we were inspired to use crayons to create texture rubbings of textures in and around the house. Here are all the textures we created:
I then edited the images to remove the white paper, preserving the translucent quality of the paints and patterns. I then split them up into individual pattern files that could be imported and overlayed individually.
I then moved to sketching out the idea for the final illustration. This time I decided to go to something completely of my own making. Inspired by the cartoon "The Wuzzles" I thought it would be fun to simply merge two animals and do it in a fun cartoon-like style. The more fun the better! I randomly chose a rhino and an owl as the two animals to merge and spent some time in my sketchbook exploring different options. I referred to animation as well as photographic references to see how people captured these animals in different ways. I wanted to see how to extract the essence of both, and then see how best to combine them back together.
Once I had an idea of what I wanted to do, I sketched it out digitally.
Then I drew in the line work, experimenting with doing this using vectors instead of raster brushes. This was more intuitive than I expected, and I liked the rough random feeling of the brushes I chose to use. I played around a lot, experimenting with how different brushes could add textural effects as well as just the lines.
Then I created larger vector shapes to represent the blocks of colour, I tinkered around with the colours as I went, initially leaning towards a warmer palette of colours.
Once I had these in place I started to experiment with adding in textures. I used a combination of textures I already had, using them as overlays and masks. But I also started to import the textures I had created myself. They imported well, but the main constraint I found was the pre-existing colours, it made for unpredictable results when combined with different layer blending options. Some of them were happy accidents, but others were just jarring. I think that it might be worth creating some black-and-white versions of the textures so that I can predictably use them in more contexts.
I started to get carried away with experimenting with textured fills, transforming and overlapping the scanned textures. In my head could see a more finished illustration at the end of the tunnel for this image, but I was not confident that I could do it without putting a lot of hours into finding the right combination. So I decided to stop where I was in my process to take stock and write up my experiments so far in my learning log.
I want to come back to this illustration later and see if it can be turned into something to put out into the world. I have everything saved, so it should be easy to pick up where I left off. One of the nice aspects of overlaying my textures onto the shapes was the way it gave the feel of papercut, this is something I can use in other ways to give a collage feel.
Wrapping Up
I enjoyed this exercise and spent more time in practical research than I expected. There are some new combinations that worked well and I've also opened up some seams for further experimentation and research. I really enjoyed letting go while drawing the Rhinowl - the drawing isn't the best but I should be more comfortable making imperfect things.
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