I'm going to start this post with a little bit of background. About six months ago, as part of researching and learning what it was to be an illustrator and discovering illustrators whose style and work I admired, I came across the very awesome Dan Berry. Dan creates an interesting, entertaining and (in my case) useful podcast (you can support him to make more episodes through his patreon).
In one of the episodes he interviewed Lorenzo Etherington. I found this interview really captivating. Not only did both Dan and Lorenzo talk enthusiastically about a lot of aspects of illustration and making comics, but I really got hooked on the idea that it's really important (and a huge skill) to develop your ability to think while you draw.
Lorenzo creates a continuing series of tutorials for free on this very subject. The tutorials cover a huge range of topics including composition, feet and world-building.
I noticed that Lorenzo had put together a Kickstarter crowd-fund to put the first volume of these tutorials into a book. Unfortunately the Kickstarter had ended, and I had no way of getting my hand on of them. Then, in September I noticed that Lorenzo and his brother Robin would be at the Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds. I took the initiative and organised a family trip all the way there from Hampshire at the last minute! The festival itself was a great experience. I tried to see as much as I could, and especially enjoyed going to the marquees dedicated to individual illustrators. I was able to meet and talk to Dan Berry and another one of my favourite illustrators, Jonathan Edwards (no, not the triple jumper).
Since I bought the book it's been a huge asset to helping me to think about what and how I am creating works. The tutorials are all freely available online, but I really appreciate having a book. There is something to be said about the tactile nature of learning effectively.
Today was the end of over a week of feeling unwell, and the peak of that illness was over the past 4 days. It meant that I got behind with the daily #Inktober challenges. Feeling a little better, I set to catching up. Unfortunately, my addled brain meant that I had forgotten that I had already done an entry for Day 10 - Flowing. So I ended up doing another entry!
How to think when you draw has an excellent section on water, so I was inspired to try and create my own.
One of the points in the tutorial is how water holds itself when pouring. The top line is straight, and the bottom edge is more wobbly and loose.
Physics also comes into play, thinking about how the water column initially pushes down before it bubbles up. I tried to think about where the shadows might lie to show the almost metallic aspect water has when viewed under the waterline. I blocked out the different shapes, ready to fill with ink later.
I used an ink brush pen exclusively for this exercise, as I wanted to improve my control over ink in this medium - when I use fineliners the width is always fixed ad there is something to push against. With a brush you can't rely on pressure in the same way. But I did notice that pressure is something you can exploit to very the line thickness and come up with new and interesting marks.
There are some shadows and shapes that I am not totally happy with. One thing that I didn't do as part of this exercise was to get some primary sources of information - namely watching water pouring myself. Photos can be a little bit of a lie in their own right, but next time I encounter an opportunity to capture something like this, I will take some more time to see images, watch videos (pausing at different points I think will be useful) and of course just spending time trying to recreate it myself in the kitchen!
The next part was to properly start catching up on the days that I had missed. The next two days had the topics Cruel and Whale. In the past, when I have missed a day for some reason, I try to catch up and combine the themes. It's an extra challenge but one I relish.
I started by sketching out some thumbnails in my sketchbook while waiting for my son at a children's party. I thought about doing a mind map, but the two words had a very obvious connection to me. The most cruel thing I know in relation to whales is the whaling industry and the effect it has on species. Initially I thought about doing something that looked a bit more old-fashioned. But the idea of 19th-century whalers, Moby Dick etc. has the potential to be too far removed and romantic. Whaling still happens now and it's far from romantic. It's industrial.
I wanted to capture a sense of menace, so I experimented with some different compositions to see what had the biggest sense of impact. The thumbnail at the top right was a strong contender - I was thinking of using red ink to capture the red bloody waters like those seen in the Faroe islands. Ultimately the first thumbnail seemed to have the strongest sense of storytelling, and I was keen to test my mettle in trying to capture the water effectively.
I used some hot-pressed watercolour paper, and taped it down to limit warping from using ink washes. I laid out the initial composition, but really wasn't happy with the whale's tail. The perspective and location just seemed off. I had done some perspective doodles in my sketchbook, and I really wanted this aspect to work well. It definitely wasn't on the page!
I moved the tail and then noticed some lines of perspective y using a box shape to lay out the tail. When I put them alongside the lines of perspective coming off of the ship, I thought about actually making the perspective lines more obvious to help me tie everything together in a sense of place. Using a very long ruler I was able to deduce the vanishing point on a scrap piece of paper I use for getting a good point on my inking brush. This immediately informed the perspective for the tail, and allowed me to improve the lines on the hull of the ship.
I started first by laying down masking fluid on all of the areas that I needed to be the lighted value, like the foam and froth, splashes and the bulk of the tail itself. After that was dry I added layers of ink washes, coming back from time to time to try and check values. Once the washes were completed I started to remove the dried masking fluid, a little at a time. I used fineliners to add lines for each section; it was easier for me to do this and take each exposed area in its own context.
One all the masking fluid has been removed, the tail was a little too white - so I added a very light ink wash and then started to add some extra shading by hatching and stippling using fineliner and brush pen.
Overall I am happy with the piece, and it's a definite improvement on other things I've done before. The water is pretty successful, and I am really pleased about how I really thought about the movement of the two bodies in the water, and how the water would respond to the movements, whilst still being agitated by the weather itself.
The tail is not exactly how I saw it in my head. There is still a perspective issue, and I didn't get the right kind of values contrast to make it stand out and appear convincing. I used a sponge to create the clouds in the sky. It's something I am still not comfortable doing, and I think I could do with doing a series of experiments and exercises in my sketch book to try and work out how to capture skies effectively.
I've recently been playing a new game called Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It has a full day and night time cycle (which you can fast forward if you want to, it's a game after all!). What I like is noticing the different way that clouds capture light at different times of day, and how the shadows in the clouds change.
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