Showing posts with label risd ce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label risd ce. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Brian Lies Visits!
So last week, our Children's Book Illustration III class got quite a treat: a visit from Brian Lies! He is the author and illustrator of the NY Times' best selling books Bats at the Beach, and Bats at the Ballgame and my favorite, Bats at the Library! (To see more of his books, click here!)
Brain was kind enough to share with us his working process, including the corresponding original art, starting with his sketchbook, his mini dummies and book dummies, how he re-works his pieces, and all the way through the steps he takes in painting with acrylics. He shared with us the book dummy for his newest book, More to be available next year. He does his finished acrylics on heavy weight vellum paper, using teeny tiny brushes and ink for his foundation line work. And his finished pieces... Absolutely gorgeous!
Brian shared some useful tips, such as writing paint color recipes for future reference, and to be sure to really layer the darks because they brighten in the scanning process. He said some things that rang true in my own creative process. It was heartening to see that like I do, he also draws in blue pencil to break in a piece of fresh white paper "because it doesn't feel like permanent final art." And he hates to erase (just like I do), so naturally he ends up with piles of paper (like I do), though he actually has storage for his piles, unlike myself! He also shared that he prefers painting animals with smaller eyes to avoid the "mass market" look in his work.
I've been so inspired, I think I might try my hand at working on paper instead of canvas with my acrylics. Just to see what happens. :)
It was a spectacular visit! So much so that my friends have blogged about it too!
Cheryl Kirk Noll (She had a real camera and got nicer photos than my cell phone did!)
Marcela Staudenmaier
Here are some links to interviews with Brian Lies, as well as Bat Conservation:
http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings
http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Brian-Lies
http://www.batcon.org/
Thank You, Brian, for visiting us! :D
And Thank You, Emilie Boon, for inviting him!
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| Brian Lies! And there's Dede to the left! :) |
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| Stunning work not put to justice by my dirty cell phone camera lens! |
Brain was kind enough to share with us his working process, including the corresponding original art, starting with his sketchbook, his mini dummies and book dummies, how he re-works his pieces, and all the way through the steps he takes in painting with acrylics. He shared with us the book dummy for his newest book, More to be available next year. He does his finished acrylics on heavy weight vellum paper, using teeny tiny brushes and ink for his foundation line work. And his finished pieces... Absolutely gorgeous!
Brian shared some useful tips, such as writing paint color recipes for future reference, and to be sure to really layer the darks because they brighten in the scanning process. He said some things that rang true in my own creative process. It was heartening to see that like I do, he also draws in blue pencil to break in a piece of fresh white paper "because it doesn't feel like permanent final art." And he hates to erase (just like I do), so naturally he ends up with piles of paper (like I do), though he actually has storage for his piles, unlike myself! He also shared that he prefers painting animals with smaller eyes to avoid the "mass market" look in his work.
I've been so inspired, I think I might try my hand at working on paper instead of canvas with my acrylics. Just to see what happens. :)
It was a spectacular visit! So much so that my friends have blogged about it too!
Cheryl Kirk Noll (She had a real camera and got nicer photos than my cell phone did!)
Marcela Staudenmaier
Here are some links to interviews with Brian Lies, as well as Bat Conservation:
http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings
http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Brian-Lies
http://www.batcon.org/
Thank You, Brian, for visiting us! :D
And Thank You, Emilie Boon, for inviting him!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Three Halloween Kittens, Finished!
Hello!
Just popping in to say I finished the kittens, and here they are!
Pretty happy with it, and I'm glad it's done! Onto the next project!
Just popping in to say I finished the kittens, and here they are!
Pretty happy with it, and I'm glad it's done! Onto the next project!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Three Halloween Kittens!
Our latest project in Children's Book Illustration III was to pick a short story provided and illustrate a full page bleed and it's opposite text page with a spot illustration. I chose the story of the Three Little Kittens, (you know, they lost their mittens, and they began to cry...).
My first question was this: why were the kittens wearing mittens?
Because it is Halloween, of course, and the mittens are part of their costumes! And I went with the happy scene after they found their mittens and put them back on. :)
Just as we did with the last project, we did three double spread layouts, character sketches, and a final image. I'm not fully finished painting the piece, and I also will touch it up with colored pencil, but I'll share what I've got so far!
My first question was this: why were the kittens wearing mittens?
Because it is Halloween, of course, and the mittens are part of their costumes! And I went with the happy scene after they found their mittens and put them back on. :)
Just as we did with the last project, we did three double spread layouts, character sketches, and a final image. I'm not fully finished painting the piece, and I also will touch it up with colored pencil, but I'll share what I've got so far!
And then I did an ink under painting, and then watercolor painting...
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| checked my values via desaturation... |
...and then I got nervous about covering the whole thing in my dark blue for the night,
so I tried it out on Photoshop first...
And thank goodness for Photoshop! I went back and worked in the darks, and now I'm finishing up on the watercolors before I begin any colored pencil.
Whew! I think it's time for bed now! I'll post ya laters, gators!
~Melanie
Monday, October 3, 2011
Children's Book Illustration 3: Project 1, Part 2
Greetings, Creative Peoples!
Here is the second installment on the process of our first project for Children's Book Illustration III. This week, we narrowed down our choices for the final spread and did value and color studies. And mixed colors! Woo! Our final goal for this project is to have the following:
1) Three double-page spread sketches from our storyboard.
2) A page of consistent character art, depicting three different action poses, and three different emotions. Color.
3) A finished portfolio-ready piece of art, single page OR double page spread.
4) Do it all in a style and/or medium that we are working to perfect.
I went back through my storyboard and picked some pages to draw a bit clearer and less sketchy:
And then I drew an angry little girl to fulfill the requirement for three emotions:
I've decided to work on a style I've be tweaking here and there, and I really love playing with the colors. It's done in acrylic paint, lots of glazed layers using matte medium, and also involves caran d'ache crayons. I was inspired by the following illustrator's styles:
Judy Schachner, for her use of texture
Mike Wohnoutka, for his cutesy style and use of color
Kelly Murphy, a mixture of textures and bold use of color
Mark Teague, for his clean but cute look
John Rocco, for his textures
Dan Santat, Dani Jones, Will Terry, Megumi Lemons....all very awesome illustrators
And here are some of the pieces I've done in the past as I whittle down on my process:
I was undecided whether I should use a warm or cool under painting, because I wanted the painting to feel wintry cold but also have a bit of electricity to it. So I stuck with the warm colors, because I used a warm brown for the lines. (Also, here's a little lesson on composition from Dan Santat: click here!)
Finally I figured it all out, did my color comps and value study, and found my color palette:
And here is my final piece in its work-in-progress state:
Here is the second installment on the process of our first project for Children's Book Illustration III. This week, we narrowed down our choices for the final spread and did value and color studies. And mixed colors! Woo! Our final goal for this project is to have the following:
1) Three double-page spread sketches from our storyboard.
2) A page of consistent character art, depicting three different action poses, and three different emotions. Color.
3) A finished portfolio-ready piece of art, single page OR double page spread.
4) Do it all in a style and/or medium that we are working to perfect.
I went back through my storyboard and picked some pages to draw a bit clearer and less sketchy:
And then I drew an angry little girl to fulfill the requirement for three emotions:
I've decided to work on a style I've be tweaking here and there, and I really love playing with the colors. It's done in acrylic paint, lots of glazed layers using matte medium, and also involves caran d'ache crayons. I was inspired by the following illustrator's styles:
Judy Schachner, for her use of texture
Mike Wohnoutka, for his cutesy style and use of color
Kelly Murphy, a mixture of textures and bold use of color
Mark Teague, for his clean but cute look
John Rocco, for his textures
Dan Santat, Dani Jones, Will Terry, Megumi Lemons....all very awesome illustrators
And here are some of the pieces I've done in the past as I whittle down on my process:
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| still have to figure out how to polish the line work on this one... |
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| I like how I handled the line here in this SECRET image from Project #2! |
I was undecided whether I should use a warm or cool under painting, because I wanted the painting to feel wintry cold but also have a bit of electricity to it. So I stuck with the warm colors, because I used a warm brown for the lines. (Also, here's a little lesson on composition from Dan Santat: click here!)
Finally I figured it all out, did my color comps and value study, and found my color palette:
And here is my final piece in its work-in-progress state:
Thanks for visiting! I'll post the rest of the process when I'm done! :)
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Children's Book Illustration 3: Project 1, Part 1
Hello!
This past week in class we each chose a sample story, and our homework was to storyboard it and draw up some character art. Our homework this week is to choose one page layout and draw a final sketch, and to put together a selection of character poses to use as final art. So here it all is, in one package! Woo!
The story I chose happens to be a poem that was featured a few months ago in the children's magazine called Ladybug. (That particular magazine is my favorite, because of the age group and the art that comes out of it. I get Cricket in the mail as well, but I generally like Ladybug better.) Anyhow, the story is about a girl named Zoey who tries to get her dog to do things, and her dog Sam does just the opposite.
I chose to put the two in a winter atmosphere, so Zoey will be from the Inuit tribe (Eskimo) and Sam is her sled dog. The back story I came up with, not mentioned in the poem, is that Zoey wants to have Sam take her on the sled to go ice fishing. But Sam really wants to walk together, not pull everything, so that's why he's fighting her the whole time. In the end, Zoey chooses to give in and just be friends, and they go off together the way it should have been in the first place, as equals.
So here it is:
This past week in class we each chose a sample story, and our homework was to storyboard it and draw up some character art. Our homework this week is to choose one page layout and draw a final sketch, and to put together a selection of character poses to use as final art. So here it all is, in one package! Woo!
The story I chose happens to be a poem that was featured a few months ago in the children's magazine called Ladybug. (That particular magazine is my favorite, because of the age group and the art that comes out of it. I get Cricket in the mail as well, but I generally like Ladybug better.) Anyhow, the story is about a girl named Zoey who tries to get her dog to do things, and her dog Sam does just the opposite.
I chose to put the two in a winter atmosphere, so Zoey will be from the Inuit tribe (Eskimo) and Sam is her sled dog. The back story I came up with, not mentioned in the poem, is that Zoey wants to have Sam take her on the sled to go ice fishing. But Sam really wants to walk together, not pull everything, so that's why he's fighting her the whole time. In the end, Zoey chooses to give in and just be friends, and they go off together the way it should have been in the first place, as equals.
So here it is:
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| Initial Character Sketches |
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| More Developed Characer... |
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| This is what I was looking for! |
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| Sam the sled dog |
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| Story board, based on the 8 page standard |
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| Composition sketch |
and the final composition....
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| Might add a few more details here and there, and the sky will be orange as the sun sets. |
Next week, we do color comps! See you then! :)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Back to School Again!
Last night I started RISD CE's Children's Book Illustration III class, taught by the published children's book artist Emilie Boon. (Love her work!) It's great to be back in class, surrounded by my friends and people who love books and art as much as I do!
The class will be broken up into three parts, with a new finished product due at the end of each part. Part I consists of creating child characters, Part II will focus on animal character design, and Part III focuses on storyboarding. As we move along through the course, each student will be honing in on their chosen medium and style and playing up to their strengths, so that we'll each have a more consistent look in our portfolios.
Speaking of style- Emilie shared with us a tidbit on finding one's own style from Dan Santat's blog. (Love his work, too!) Very nice little piece, and it reminds me a lot of what I'm going through. Trying new things, doing stuff because I like doing it (probably more than I like how it looks), and overall playing to my strengths and doing things the way I want to do them. It's okay to be in love with another artist's art... attempt making it for yourself... and then realizing "that's just not the way I work!"
In other news, I am working out a contract/price for my soon-to-be client! Woo hoo! Let's hope we can find a happy medium between the two of us, because if we do, I'm estimating by Spring of 2012 I'll be a freshly published illustrator!
Time to get some homework done, so see you later! :)
The class will be broken up into three parts, with a new finished product due at the end of each part. Part I consists of creating child characters, Part II will focus on animal character design, and Part III focuses on storyboarding. As we move along through the course, each student will be honing in on their chosen medium and style and playing up to their strengths, so that we'll each have a more consistent look in our portfolios.
Speaking of style- Emilie shared with us a tidbit on finding one's own style from Dan Santat's blog. (Love his work, too!) Very nice little piece, and it reminds me a lot of what I'm going through. Trying new things, doing stuff because I like doing it (probably more than I like how it looks), and overall playing to my strengths and doing things the way I want to do them. It's okay to be in love with another artist's art... attempt making it for yourself... and then realizing "that's just not the way I work!"
In other news, I am working out a contract/price for my soon-to-be client! Woo hoo! Let's hope we can find a happy medium between the two of us, because if we do, I'm estimating by Spring of 2012 I'll be a freshly published illustrator!
Time to get some homework done, so see you later! :)
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