Blog Illustrations #2

Kids Two - Encourage effort – June 2018

I love those artworks that depict a whole, relatable scene, the ones with loads if detail, the kind you see in kids picture books. Having decided that illustration is what I like to do I wanted to give that kind of art a try seeing as those are artworks that move me most.

This scene of my youngest two helping me cook had the makings of a good piece of artwork, and the painting on the page is not bad, but digitalizing it proved disappointing. The skin colours in particular are not as they should be and the detail from the items around the kitchen side have been lost. I scanned this image into the computer and then adjusted the colours using Krita ( a free artist software) which was not the best method but I just did not know how to do it correctly. I digitally cut out the foreground in an attempt to tidy up the background and in doing so I created a collage effect which is displeasing and harsh. I do need to work on those backgrounds. 

Hair Two - Coconut oil is my friend

This image really needs to go with the text to explain it fully. I am happy that I managed to get the expression on the girls face correct but the hair should have been darker to set off the skin better and a bit more time polishing the sketch would have improved the whole illustration .

Faith Two – there must be more than this

The illustration of the text was to show that no matter how distracted I got by life I still kept turning back to God. I would often turn away but I couldn’t help but turn back. The original art had a background of worshippers in Church painted very loosely. The foreground had the girl sitting on the floor, her back to the worshippers but being unable to help herself turning round to have a glance.

The background did not work though. I attempted to touch it up digitally but it just did not work.

A few years back I painted some experimental backgrounds with tape masking off the shape of the cross. I scanned them into the PC to have a play with some software, filed them and forgot all about them! While I was wondering what to do to salvage this illustration (rather than having to start over) I came across the watercolour cross, edited out the bad background and slotted this one in.

I was very happy with the result

Youth Two - Malteser worship –graffiti wall

I planned this picture out about 18months before actually painting it. I planned it in pencil, I planned it again digitally and again with copics. I finally decided to do it in watercolour to give me more flexibility between the background and foreground. I really enjoyed using watercolour in a less watery way(!). I needed the colours to be bright and bold and not really bleed which I think I achieved pretty well. The proportions of the figure are off but I think the image stands out well enough to be worthy of Rebel Youth.

Health Two-  cleanse tone moisturize is it worth it – beauty counter

The illustration of the beauty counter finished successfully and I was fairly pleased with the result. I took a photo of the final piece and loaded it into Krita to touch it up but the background looked really grey. I didn’t know how to edit that successfully so I cut out the background. I think it ruined the figures and have given them a funny collage effect.