Wednesday 18 January 2012

Word of the Week, 'Prepare' -- Illustration

Another week has come and now we are already half way through it! Time certainly does fly when your having fun. Another week means another Illustration, and this week the word is Prepare. I started the process again by researching other artists, exploring the meaning of the word, and brainstorming a series of concepts.

The artist I chose to look at this week is Charles Harper. This image of a Sunfish has a childlike feel but was masterfully done. I want to generate the same feel for my illustration.
After exploring the different meanings/ scenarios where 'prepare' might be used, I 
generated these concepts. A couple of my thoughts were; 'prepare' a meal, 'prepare' for school (packing a backpack), 'prepare' for winter (a person  bundled up to the 9's and a foot deep in the snow), 'prepare' a wall for painting, 'prepare' the ice for skating (tribute our nation with the Zamboni), and to 'prepare' to run in a race.




















Now that I've chosen a concept ('Prepare' for winter -- Hamilton finally has some snow!) I've made a linear draft.
Next step; Colour Harmony. Got my trusty Colour Wheel here with me :) I'm going to go with an analogous scheme; blues, blue-violets, violets, red-violets, and reds.










To add the colour I'm going to work with pencil crayons.














Making sure I get those little details exactly right!
















I also wanted to have a texture in this piece (I'm always a fan of texture) so I coloured on top of a piece of heavy-toothed watercolour paper. This gave my illustration a texture that makes it look like it's snowing in the scene.







Now I'll add ink to incorporate the great use of lines that Charlie Harper has in his Sunfish illustration.









Add text, and...Voila! "Unknown Artist's latest album 'Prepare'. Coming to Stores this February!"
(Not actually on a CD, but that would be awesome!)

I hope your enjoying these posts; they're a lot of fun to do! I'll have another one for you next week.
Cheers,
~ Jen

4 comments:

  1. Great choice, Jennifer! Charlie Harper was a genius at using the principals of graphic design in his illustrations. He was really the ultimate designer/illustrator hybrid. Be sure to think in terms of shape and colour and how you will arrange your image elements to capture that Harper-ish quality! :^)

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  2. That's beautiful! It reminds me of that snowman cartoon :) p.s. it's ' voila' not wha la :p french I know :)

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  3. You knocked it out of the park, Jennifer! This is fabulous - great job! :^)

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  4. Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback; it's very encouraging. Caryn I fixed the spelling for you -- thanks for the correction!

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