That takes me right into step...1) inspiration. I get inspired by all kinds of things: a movie; magazine photo; image in a book or online; or just an image in my imagination. This particular illustration is the result of aimless doodling while listening to a great audiobook!
2) Preliminary sketch – Flesh out a figure based on my inspiration. In this sketch I’ll work out proportions and garment details. If I’m working with a historical inspiration, I’l get pretty detailed here, to be accurate! Sometimes this step comes naturally on the first sketch, and sometimes it takes four or five tries to get to something that I’m satisfied with.
3) Transfer to marker paper. I use a light box that I have rigged up using a glass tabletop and a lamp.
4) Work out a colour scheme. It’s important to work our colours first, to avoid frustration halfway through my work when things aren’t looking like I’d pictured. I will especially play around with flesh and hair tones, to make sure I’m getting the look the aI want. If I am working within a historical time period, I’ll do some research to make sure that the colours that I’m choosing are true to that period.
5) Blocking in colours. I prefer to work with the most challenging areas first, so that I’m not risking hours of work if I’m not satisfied. On large areas of flat colour, like a background or a dress, I’ll block in the area with a blending marker first, which allows the inks to stay wet longer, and float into each other. The background and flesh areas are trickiest for me, so that’s what I tackle first, then the hair.
6) To begin with the garments, I work in the shadow areas first. This ensures that I’ll get good depth of colour, and balance the rest of the garments’ colours against these areas. Next I work in the rest of the area, suggesting the contours of the body and the garment. Since a marker drawing tends to have flatter areas of colour and not as much detail, it’s important to be intentional with shadow and white space. Dimension will be shown through suggestion of contours, not from actually drawing them in.7) Finishing details, like footwear, and facial detail. I use black pens of varying thicknesses to tidy up the image and give a bold finishing touch. This is especially important on faces and hair, to make them stand out, and makes the whole illustration look bold and clean.
8) Sign and scan, and that's it! Next I'd get my printing and pricing together and post it in my shop, but that's another story for another day!My materials:
No comments:
Post a Comment