Illustration Friday: Wild

For this week's Illustration Friday, I toyed with a new working method in Corel Painter 12.

The black line you see is made with the crowquil brush tool, varying the size between 2 and about 5 pt.  I drew that first and made it the top layer in the file.  The color wash is made with a variety of gouache brushes.  This time I used only one wash color.  The different tonal gradations come from painting on separate layers and adjusting the opacity of each layer.  I like the simplicity of this method and the feel of the brushes involved. But as I add more layers, my old PC gets painfully slow.  Still, I think it's a process worth tinkering with for a while.  Maybe, one of these days, I'll get a new powerhouse machine.

The characters in this scene are loosely based on characters in a middle grade novel currently out on submission to agents.  I manufactured this scene purely for the IF challenge.  Nothing like it happens in the actual story, although I did find that knowing the characters ahead of time helped me to generate the scene more easily.

Happy Easter, Everybunny!

Illustration Friday: Eyeglasses

Eyeglasses!!

This one started as a pencil sketch.  Then I scanned it into Painter and drew it properly with the crowquil brush, varying the point size between 2 and 3.5.  I love the freedom Painter is giving me.  I get the feel of a real India ink dipped pen, but with the computer's completely forgiving eraser option. 

It's been ages since I've done a sketch for Illustration Friday.  There's a good reason for that.  I've been busily working on an illustration for a commercial client.  Most of that was done in Painter too.  I'm happy to report that the work was received enthusiastically by the client.  I'll blog about the creative process after the image is up on his website.

Checking in

Sorry for all the blog silence of late.  I have been hard at work on a commercial project and finishing up revisions on a novel, trying to get it all done before my daughter comes home for her last college spring break. (Oh, my God! I can't believe she's graduating in May!)

Since I don't really have time right now for a proper blog post, I'll share a link to one on the process of illustrating and designing a book cover by Irene Gallo at Tor books.  Tor commissions some of the best artwork in the publishing industry, definitely worth a look-see, and a good read for illustrators and authors interested in learning more about the kind of thinking going on behind cover design.

DRAWING Magazine Feature

A drawing from one of my sketchbooks is featured in an article on The Sketchbook Project in the Winter 2013 issue of Drawing magazine!

Here's the spread they chose to show:

It's from my 2012 sketchbook.  Here's how it looks in the magazine article:

The other two artists whose work is featured on this spread are Melissa Patton and Carl Licence.

The magazine article (which appears to do a better job of crediting visual artists than their own writers - I couldn't find a byline) has this to say about my sketchbook: "Jeanie Wogaman's sketchbook explores a very different sort of imagined world; her pen drawings depict tiny people living peacefully in the trees. She draws mostly in black but dots her pages with great red apples, and these generous splashes of color energize her complex compositions." Nice! Many thanks to the folks at Drawing magazine and The Sketchbook Project for presenting my work in such a favorable light!  Thanks also to The Sketchbook Project for sending me a complimentary issue.

A bit about Drawing magazine

It's a quarterly publication originally started by American Artist magazine (now defunct).  The issue in my hand has articles on the relationship between drawing and other visual art practices, the anatomy of the landscape, measuring the figure, and a number of features on colored pencil artists.  All the articles are richly illustrated with loads of eye candy.  I'm seeing a lot of both classical and photo-realistic art.  There are the requisite oodles of ads, but they are mostly for really cool art supplies, so they're fun to pore over too.  Drawing magazine would be great resource for a student artist or hobbyist working on a foundation in classical drawing technique (something I highly recommend, even if your final works are abstract or highly stylized).  The cover price is currently $8.99, but if you're interested in a year's worth, you can save with a subscription (see www.artistdaily.com for more info).

Bottles

Potion bottles done in Painter. Simple and quick. The subject matter is inspired by a scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. First I did a pencil sketch on paper and scanned it. Opened the scan in Painter and saved it as a RIFF. With basic paper as my canvas texture I lifted the sketch to a watercolor layer. Then I created an ink layer above that. I started drawing with the real drippy pen brush, but then switched to the crowquil.  It just seemed to work better with the scale and detail of this particular drawing.  For the flat color, I created a layer just above the canvas and painted with wet gouache round brush.

Illustration Friday: Wings

For this week's Illustration Friday challenge, and for our (fingers crossed) next Super Bowl champions, I give you Ravens in Flight.

I drew this with the real drippy pen brush in Painter. I love the real drippy pen!  It feels so natural.  It's much more responsive to pressure and stroke speed than the crowquil or bamboo pen brushes.  Expect to see more real drippy pen images here.

I added two layers of Painter's real watercolor.  I know I said I didn't think I'd use it again because it's painfully slow, but I could not resist.  I am a watercolorist at heart.  The second layer was a killer.  It took my poor little PC ages to process my brushstrokes.  I may have to plan compositions that require only one layer of real watercolor.

My Favorite Things

Inspired by Abigail Halpin, I have decided to follow John Hendrix's advice to find my artistic voice.  Please visit his blog to read his five recommendations.  It will be worth your time.  My post today addresses Hendrix's first recommendation: "Learn to solve problems on your own terms."

As Hendrix points out, "When we make things we enjoy, our work gets better."  I tend to forget about this when I start to solve an illustration problem.  I focus on the specific needs of the assignment and set aside the what I love most about drawing.  This is not usually necessary.  I can infuse my illustration with things I love to draw most.  Hendrix offers up a simple, but helpful exercise: Make a list of 100 things you like drawing and keep the list up in your studio to remind you of what you should be including in your artwork.

Here are some of the things on my list:

gnarly trees
children climbing
town houses
castles
Victorian houses
skinny cats making mischief
apples
steaming coffee mugs
teapots
anthropomorphized rats
tiny mice
old stone churches
stacks of hardback books
ink bottles
fire hydrants

You can see a lot of these things in the older posts on this blog,

... and you can expect to see even more in future posts.

Illustration Friday: Myth

For Illustration Friday: Myth: 

Self portrait as a drawing demon.

Executed in Painter 12 using the crowquil pen and various acrylic brushes.

Illustration Friday: Ocean

This week's Illustration Friday offering and my first stab at using the real watercolor brushes in Painter.  I like the realistic look, but the strokes take so long to load that I can't see myself using the feature regularly.  Next, I'll be exploring other means of adding color to my digital ink drawings.  I will definitely be making more use of Painter's crowquil pen brush.  It's heavenly!

Illustration Friday: New

Here's to the hope that newness brings! 

2012 brought me new software--Painter 12--and I am having a blast with it. Best new toy ever!

More play with Painter brushes today for this week's Illustration Friday prompt: "New." 

I know I need to spend gobs more time learning this stuff in 2013, but I am excited--not daunted--by the prospect.