These images were originally done at 38x50 inches. Which is enormous. I tried to take photos of them. I tried to get other people to take photos of them. The photos sucked. So I finally broke down and scanned them. Piece by piece. It took the better part of one weekend and one day to scan and reassemble these. The tree took about 30 scans and the elephants about 50. Finally I have decent images of these. The tree was scanned at 600 dpi and the elephants at 300, and were assembled at actual size. The object was to make clear enough and large enough images to make decent-sized prints.
So now you can see that the tree isn't so dark, and the elephants not so brush strokey, and the buildings in the background do not look like mud. I changed the lines in the buildings to a dark red so that the buildings would be more pink, and so the windows in the background wouldn't get muddy. So this is pretty much what these are supposed to look like, and soon I will make prints out of them.
Hey man,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank yo for your detailed critique on my recent pieces. I completely agree with all of your crits. I think the problem mainly remains with the finishing stage of my illustration work. With all the back and forth that I do with an art director, by the time the final is approved, the initial drawing sometimes gets too stiff because of all the numerous redrawing. Or in some cases, it is required to make everything clean and sharp looking. My initial goal is, however, to find a nice balance between my sketchbook work and my final pieces. Similar to what Olivier Kugler or Steve Mumford do. If I can get to that point, I'd be happy. :)
I'm glad you enjoy the really crowded illustration, because they are usually the ones that take the longest. (not quite sure I could pull off a Geoff Darrow thing without going insane :)
I've really enjoyed looking through your recent illustration work. Your drawings keep getting stronger and stronger with every single post. If I had to crit anything (which is just minor nitpicking)would the the "handling" of the color (not the color itself). It seems like you are going for a "watercolor" softness by keeping the opacity very low, yet in a few cases you just end up seeing the photoshop brush strokes. (I don't know if I'm making sense). Maybe if you try to use a flat brush (not airbrush) at 100% opacity and flow and then apply a subtle color, then maybe go back and just slightly accent certain area with an air brush. Either that, or go simply with watercolor (maybe try watercolor brush in painter?) Either way, this is just minor stuff man,.....the work is super solid and I would love to see some sketchbook stuff maybe at some point ;)
keep crankin' buddy and keep in touch!
-Tin
:)
Glad you like the new stuff and it's great to hear from you Tin!
ReplyDeleteOne of my problems is that I don't have the sketchbook discipline that you do and sometimes it takes me a full day just to warm up when I haven't been exercising my chops. I don't think I have that love of drawing for its own sake that you do, and it's something I'm definitely envious of. I think I have more of that for writing than drawing.
Though I'm continuing to take illustration work when it falls in my lap, I haven't been seeking freelance out actively because I just don't have the temperament for the lifestyle.
I do want to pursue making books and comics, (and I'm making a little headway in the direction with my Blue Kid strip) but being a full time, on call freelancer is just not good for my physical and mental health. Some people can handle it and some people can't.
As for the recent work: I was screwing around with brushes in a pretty random and experimental way with the schwarzenegger piece so I see what you're saying about the color application--it was printed on newsprint so none of that stuff showed up anyway, but it definitely does in my portfolio. That's the only one where I've done that, though, and the elephants actually ARE done in watercolor, but yeah, I need to be a little more crafty with the application of the color--I just still haven't found my way with that yet. I'm trying to get away from my older more graphic approach, where I focussed a lot on shapes of color. Ideally I'd like to have it look more like wet media. I don't have painter though--wish I did.
Thanks for the feedback and I'll keep checking in to take a look at your stuff now and again.