2 Color Silhouettes

When I make these into Illustrator files, Ill try a bunch of different color ways.

Duck

Iv been working on the written story for these last several watercolors and finished the rough draft tonight. Its longer than I thought it would be with less characters too. I wont be posting the story here, but the pictures should tell most of it.

You Do What You Want, Im Going For Coffee

Arthur Part 2

Arthur 1

Carl Outside

Carl

Sean

Prehistoric

Action Words

Impromptu Toad

It Was the Thickness of the Lines

If you compare the head in the oval to the one in the square, you can see that I fixed a lot of the line width inconsistencies. The top of the head where the hair highlight is and the collar needed the biggest fixes. Its important to establish the line width early and make it same all around. It lends to the believability of the world you are trying to create, and helps with the overall harmony of the picture.

Since Chewy was the only one to take a guess, I added the shoulders in her honor.

Spooky

Ghost Frog. So little and harmless. Probably.

Getting Ready

Im getting ready to start a new children's book this fall. Though I had thought about painting it digitally, I will be going the traditional route with a limited pallet; black, yellow and brown. Iv been using more colors now and then, but really feel that a simple pallet fits for this direction. Simple + Simple = Clarity.

Recital Underpainting

Blocking in the basic structure so far. The scallops on the frame are coming off a little juvenile so they may have to go. I wanted the painting on the wall to convey a light and peaceful mood to reflect the violin and piano; like it describes the meaning of the music they're playing. I wonder if there is a musical composition about a lion and a deer? Would the piano be the lion? I may shift the color to a cool pallet to play off the warms in the final rendering.

Beach Finished Up

This is based on a photo I took one afternoon while my daughter and I walked and played on the beach. It was a great scene.

Competition

The first week of classes went well. I used this illustration in one of the digital classes to talk about making paths. More to the point: shape making and what to stay away from.

Not sure how this post will look. I'm trying out BlogPress to get images up. My iPhone saved me a lot of time yesterday since I don't have regular computer Internet access yet. I'm not convinced I need it... More on that later.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Picking Blueberries

While we were in Cooperstown earlier this month, we went to an organic blueberry u-pick farm. With our four kids combined, we brought back five large bags of berries, and made two delicious pies, adding in market bought peaches to the mix. We snacked on berries the rest of the trip. So fresh; so good.

Contributor: Jean Tuttle Mini Interview

I recently spoke with Jean Tuttle about some of her views on Illustration. She is one of those illustrators who not only has a wealth of experience, over years of a successful illustration career, but is generous with her time, very informative, and a pleasure to talk with. Here is part of our discussion:

What is your point of view when going about creating an illustration?

When I create an illustration, the first thing I need to be clear about is, "What is the problem I need to solve?"Sometimes the client lays that out for me very clearly, but even so, it means going over what they have stated they need, reading the article or synopsis (if one is available), reviewing other particulars of the assignment (such as size and shape of the desired image, who the audience is, etc.), and then restating again, for myself, what the problem is that I need to solve. Often, writing it out as a sentence is helpful, then starting to doodle alongside of that, and/or brainstorm further using words. However, sometimes, as soon as I've restated the problem, i.e., translated it from what the art director said they need to my own (re)interpretation of that, a good solution pops right into mind.

Example: (see above image)

Recently a client got in touch with a rush assignment (one day for sketches, one day for final art). Here's what he told me he needed:

"It’s a story about spending as little time as possible preparing food for Labor Day. I don’t want to illustrate any of the actual recipes in the story; I just want something that shows someone relaxing while preparing food or something along those lines."

In this case, the direction was fairly clear, however restating it for myself meant reading behind the lines just a little bit: "I need to convey the family cook relaxing, but also show this within the context of a fun Labor Day meal or gathering."

Once I had restated the problem for myself in this way, I began to think about how I might show the end of summer and the beginning of fall, in order to convey "Labor Day." A way to do this, and to also present the chef as "at ease," was to place her in a hammock -- a recognizable symbol both for summer and relaxation -- and to place the hammock between two trees that were starting to turn color, symbolizing the new season that was approaching.

Sometimes the assignment is a lot more complicated, but my basic approach is always the same.

This is, by the way, a trick I learned from reading Bob Gill's book, "Forget all the rules you ever learned about graphic design. Including the ones in this book," published in 1981. Bob Gill would say to his design students, "Tell me your idea. Don't show me a layout," and, "Think first, then draw." For me, and the kind of assignments I do, this technique of redefining the problem before I proceed works very well -- especially on assignments with quick turnarounds, like the one mentioned above.

Having started your career as a traditional artist, how do you see digital illustration in comparison to traditional media?

I feel very lucky that I was able to receive a foundation in traditional media before switching over to the computer. I also feel lucky to have entered the digital era when it was just getting rolling, and before it got too complex. (I wasn't technologically inclined to begin with, so climbing on the digital bandwagon while things were simpler and moved more slowly was easier for me, not as daunting.)

Of course the computer is just another tool, but it can be a very powerful and imposing one, and with so many options and capabilities, such that it can be distracting and overwhelming at times. That old adage, "Make your accidents work for you," that applies when you are painting, or using some other tactile media, needs to be reined in quite a bit more when one is working digitally, I think. The computer puts so many effects at your fingertips, literally, and it's fun to explore and experiment (with color, filters, etc). But even as you are doing so, I think it's important to keep your own vision firmly in mind. Like you would keep a final destination in mind while you are driving. You might vary the route a bit, spontaneously take a side road or two that appeals to you or that you are curious about, but you still need to keep focused on your ultimate destination, and make sure that the final image accomplishes what it needs to.

In fine art the rules are different of course, but illustration, by definition, means communicating something specific to someone else...or, solving a specific problem. So it is important to not get waylaid by the computer's seductive effects, nor to settle for style over substance.

It is equally important to press beyond what is technically more difficult to do on a computer, and stick with it, if it is important to the success of your piece. Since, another thing that is difficult about computers, is, the computer often delivers a slick, finished look to things that are nonetheless amateurishly or incompletely drawn, or poorly conceived. For a student, it might be too easy to look at that polished-looking image one can get to very quickly and say, "This is fine, I'm finished." The vision of how a piece should look, the goal you are aiming for -- a lot of that comes from one's traditional training in color, design, drawing. And there's no substitute for having those skills under one's belt.

What do you think of the illustration industry and its future?

Of course the illustration industry, as I experienced it when I first began my career (late 1970s), has undergone a sea change. I'd say this is due to several main factors: the impact of technology on our specific industry, technology's impact on industry in general, and an increased number of illustrators vying for fewer jobs.

There is no question that technology has impacted our specific market and how we do business -- and that this has been bad and good in terms of its effect on the individual illustrator. Technology has made stock illustration more widely available, as well as royalty-free images, for example. And while stock has opened another avenue for illustrators to generate revenue, via licensing and relicensing images they have already created -- which is great -- it also means that there are more options for an art director to choose from, besides hiring the illustrator to create a new image (or using your stock image versus the many, many others that are now available and easily found online).

Technology has also allowed designers and art directors to create more of their own "illustrations," eliminating the need to hire an illustrator at all -- whether these are simple icons drawn in Adobe Illustrator or collages made from stock photography using Photoshop. As budgets have decreased, more of the smaller (but nonetheless formerly lucrative) venues for illustration, such as spots in corporate newsletters and in newspapers, have dried up, as these rely increasingly not just on stock and stock photography sources, but on in-house design staff for imagery.

On the plus side of technology, there are many more options for being seen and hired via the Web than there ever were before, via one's own website, group (portfolio) sites, blogs, etc.

Technology-related changes (such as outsourcing) are not unique to our field, but have impacted everyone -- industries and markets across the board. Old jobs (and ways of doing things) are dying as new ones emerge. It's just how things are, and as lllustrators we need to be aware of and adapt to this, versus wait for it to pass. It's never going to pass. The changes that have taken place in our field are here to stay, and more are coming, at an accelerated pace -- as is true for any other industry today.

And regarding what I perceive as more illustrators vying for fewer jobs today than in the past (at least in some segments of the market, like editorial), the plus side of that is, when there is more competition, in any endeavor, we all tend to apply ourselves more, and the quality of work is better across the board. So, even while the illustration industry is challenging from an economic standpoint right now (and likely will continue to be, at least in some areas of the field), a lot of beautiful, exciting work is being done, that makes being a part of this community of artists very engaging and rewarding. The basic things that make one an illustrator (versus another kind of artist) have not changed, nor are they likely to. But my guess is the way we each find to apply our talents will continue to evolve, beyond what we may be able to picture at this moment. That's pretty exciting to contemplate as well, as long as one stays open to change.

Thanks to Jean Tuttle for the great insights.