Lion and Mouse Friday Update

I'm working hard to keep the Lion and the Mouse piece a strictly during my lunch time experiment. But I just got through uploading it to my web page so that I can download and work on it at home if I want to. Tee Hee!! Even though I know that I have so many other PAYING things that I need to be working on at home instead. We'll see if I can stick to task and focus on what I need to this weekend!

Ok let's go through how this Monster is progressing!At this point I spend around half my lunch hour plucking away at this. Which is about a half hour. Here is a daily progression from the last image I posted which was from Tuesday. This image is from Wednesday. I'm starting to get close to finalizing what I "think" I want for the background. And finally feel like I am getting the hand of the brush I am using in photoshop to get the watercolor-ish look. But so far so good. The mouse has yet to make an appearance though. Poor mousey. 

The Thursday image I am starting to lay in some tones on the lion. Trying to flesh him out and battling with whether or not I'll just break down and render him in my current style or do  my best to keep it as close to the original execution style as possible. I settle on a blend of the two. Try my best to keep as much of the watercolor looks as possible. But when it gets down to it I need to see current me in what I do! So a blend will be necessary.

The Friday image. I realize that I need to flesh out the Lion a bit more and get a more solid foundation on how he looks and how I want light to affect him and whatnot. I was getting to be too much of a slave to the original piece. Constantly looking back and forth at it. I've currently removed it from my piece and I'm just gonna draw and paint the rest of this the way I would currently do it!  So I redrew the Lion and I feel a lot better about this now! Still no mousey though. Maybe Monday!!! 

Have a great weekend folks!!

-Wilson

On the Drawing Board-WIP

So, what's on my drawing table, other than some freelance work? (Which I should have wrapped up by the end of this weekend.) The W.I.P's (Work in Progress) are as follows, the image above is a second image from the Singing Chef John story. Since I need to show some character continuity, I thought this image made sense to move towards completing. The other Chef John image is here on my website. I've laid in some very base colors, but I still need to go back in and correct all the perspectives and whatnot and make the character a bit shorter. He is too tall to match the other image, in my opinion. And his ears should be a lot bigger!

Below is another sketch. Something with animals and children. The scene is from a story about a little girl named Bernice(on the left) and her magic red boots. When she dances magical things tend to happen. This sketch isn't done. I'm going to finish it in Photoshop and finalize the girl on the right, have her(Bernice) throwing her hat in the air and add another mouse on the left that will be dancing with her. Anything else you folks see needs fixin' let me know!!!

To my left is where I currently am with the redo of the Lion and the Mouse image. The original is in this post. It's taking a lot to try and maintain the watercolor feel of things and figure out how to get the look. But surprisingly, going back to an old piece and reworking it is quite eye opening. There's so many decisions I made in this as far as design and composition that I wouldn't do today. SO many things that I uncover and wonder, "What was I thinking?" So many things make no sense whatsoever. It's comforting to know that I have learned and grown in the past ten plus years. LOL! 

This is my work piece. The image I work on while I'm on my lunch at my daytime job. And it is proving fun. I'm very curious to see how it evolves. I plan on maintaining the watercolor look in the background but going more with my current style in the foreground characters. But we'll see!! I also can't wait to redo the little mousey! Should be fun!!! Let me know what you guys think!!

-Wilson

Just a Touch Up

I have an account on DeviantArt. One of the major benefits of that site is that I get to see which of my pictures gets viewed and faved the most often. There is a particular piece from my years in college that is far and away the favorite piece of my collection and it is below.

The Lion waited impatiently for the Mouse to explain his proposition.

For my senior thesis in college I did a giftcard set of African Folklore. That included Aesop's fables and that included, "The Lion and the Mouse". This was one of my first watercolors and I haven't been able to get it out of my portfolio SINCE!! LOL! It haunts me to no end! But I have to be honest with myself about why it is so popular.

But my problem right now is that I want my portfolio to be completely digital. No mediums other than a pencil sketch that is then colored in Photoshop. Watercolors are just too unpredicatable and difficult to edit for me to see them as a viable medium for freelance work at this time. In time I want this to change, but for now this is how I feel. I don't mind emulating watercolors in Photoshop, which I haven't figured out how to do quite yet. But I definitely want to make my entire portfolio digitally based. While I love this piece, I know that adding it ensures that I will get many requests to do work in this medium and style. So it can't be part of my portfolio in its current state.

So how do I correct this issue? I was wondering recently how this piece would look if I redit it in Photoshop? Created a digital version of it. And maybe not just this piece but some others of note from my previous portfolio. Does this sound like a good idea? Do you think something like this could enhance my portfolio and get "The Lion and The Mouse" monkey off my back? I definitely think I could add a lot more character to these and my rendering skills have improved a good deal since then (I like to think so anyway).

So what do you guys think? Below are more potential contendors for a digital do over. All of them are watercolor/gouache pieces. Any input is great!

Thanks

-Wilson

Shy Rhino Before and After

This is the image before I changed it up some. I needed to add something to it to make it relevant for a children's book portfolio. I thought making it an Alphabet book page made perfect sense.



There was also some concern that the grass in his/her mouth doesn't look like it was actually in the mouth. And that the portion of the rhino's body below the face was hard to read and understand. I wanted to address those issues too.



At the end of the day I did struggle with adding the letter in. I wanted to make it composed of grass or 3-D in some way. But I settled on simpler being better. I integrated the letter into it's environmemt but kept it fairly non-rendered and easily readable. The objective of the piece should be that the letter is legible and easily identifiable for the young reader. I think this change makes the piece have more of a story and purpose and considerably more relevant to my portfolio.

I'll probably also submit this piece to Illustration Friday for the word this week, idle. It'll be my first time and hopefully it'll be received well. Here's hoping!! :)

-Wilson

Next Sketches

Here is a sketch for the next piece I'm working on.



And here it is with me adding a base of color. I'm thinking that I may do the primary figure to the right and the finish line in full color, while leaving the other racers rendered monochromatic. It would put a great deal of emphasis on the kid to the right and set a very specific tone to the piece. I'm still pondering that though. This is also a double page spread and you can see where the middle is by the vertical line I've drawn in the middle.




In the meanwhile I will be working on making some changes to older pieces of mine. I will probably post those too once I'm done. I don't know about anybody else, but I have the hardest time going back to pieces once I have decided in my head they are complete. The problem is you get some wise person who comes along and points something out in your piece that's wrong, so glaringly wrong that it knocks you on your backside! Those are the changes that I'll be working on next. And some of them are doozies!! If I can I'll post the originals and the draw overs that were done by this wise person or people.

PENGUIN FAMILY ICE SKATING REVISED

I have been taking notes from a new critique group that I have joined. The West Coast Critters Critique Group. It's a critique group of Illustrators interested in breaking in to the Children's Book Publishing arena. We help each other improve our artwork and portfolios. Most of us live on the Western Coast of Florida, and that's where the name comes from.There were a number of suggestions and I used those to revisit my image and make some changes.

1. No longer is the little girl's hat going outside of the border. I extended the left side of the image to make room for her. I also added more definition to her face and pose. She is silently giggling at her brother for having fallen down. A more detailed close up of that is below.

2. The fathers' fins are more upward and not pointing at the children. There was a concern that it looked like he should be holding their fins since his were in such close proximity to theirs. That's not the idea I wanted so I changed the position.

Let me know what you guys think of the changes! I look forward to hearing any input!! :)

sketches

The next piece is what I am starting on next. I intend to take this one kinda step by step through the process of creating it. Uploading images of it as I go. For now the piece is titled, Penguin Family Ice Skating. I know, such an imaginative title. If anyone has other suggestions let me know!

Thanks again!!

4-7 Youth Sport Graphics

Here are a bunch of new images that I have done for a freelance client. They will be used for t-shirts. I've been asked to do two images from various sports aimed at a 4-7 age range. The style is consistant with how I render my children's work, but it is a bit more vibrant and bright. My normal color palette is more sedated. Hopefully I can find a place within my children's book portfolio for some of these. Maybe as spot examples, I'm not sure. But we'll see!!