Saturday, March 1, 2014

Carnival Preparations

  Recently I've been listening to Chris Oatley's podcasts. (http://chrisoatley.com,
@ChrisOatley)  He's a professional artist who worked as a character designer
for Disney.  He now offers online digital painting courses.
 The podcasts host many accomplished artists.  I have found that although I don't
intend to become a storyboard artist, animator, or character designer, children's book
illustration involves many of the same aspects.  (Take notes if you listen, as there is
a massive amount of valuable information!)
  One tip I took to heart while working and listening.  I believe it was the cast with
Chris Campbell.  He said he takes a week to prepare to do a painting, researching and
even making models.  Struggling with the body of the girl I was sketching I realized
I needed to look at a figure in the poses.  It looked off.  Preparation can make the
difference between a bad painting and a great one.  So last night I persuaded my
daughter to pose and took photos of her.  This helped so much, especially for the
arms of the first figure and the 3/4 view of the last.  I also reduced the figures and
played around with size and placement.
 My original sketch (see Jan. Hold on to Love) did not have the carnival in the background.  I was told at a critique that I needed more backgrounds so I thought it would be a nice addition.  You can see the final composition is more interesting.  I will do the final tracing based on this rough sketch.  Working digitally has many advantages when reworking composition,         but I felt this one would be best done traditionally.
 Checking out youtube yesterday lead me to videos about stenciling and making alcohol inks.  
I thought it might be fun to do this one in the mixed media method I experimented with a 
while ago. I will post the final art next week.  
The next Lilla Rogers (http://lillarogers.com) mini assignment will be given this week
 so I will post sketches for this as well.   
Now go explore! 



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