Talkin' About Style

So, where does an artist's style come from?

That was the question that I, along with fellow illustrators, Susan Savory, Andy J. Smith and Teri Weidner, attempted to answer at the 25th Annual NESCBWI Conference last weekend. (For those unfamiliar with that acronym, it stands for the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.)

Susan, Andy, Teri and I hosted a workshop entitled - deep breath - The Search for a Singular Style: An Exploration for Illustrators. Phew. That was a mouthful.

We kicked off our presentation with slides of our work. And because we wanted to show apples and apples, each of us illustrated a scene from Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Susan Savory's whimsical and mystical illustrations are done with cut paper.

Andy J Smith's work is wacky fun and created digitally.

Teri Weidner's watercolors are beautiful and traditional.

And then there's me, with my slightly twisted humor. This is a drawing with ink wash, digitally colored.

The talk was essentially divided into two parts.

First, we discussed the roots or foundation of style and those (according to us) are Influences, Voice, Experimentation and Practice. This portion of talk featured our own personal stories and work. And for the record, the book How To Draw the Marvel Way was a huge influence on me--that and Wacky Packages!

The second half of the talk explored elements of style, the qualities intrinsic to every illustration that can often be taken for granted. We showed several varied examples of each element of style and urged the attendees to question their approach to each of the following:

• Character Design
• Color
• Line
• Medium
• Texture
• Tight vs Loose
• Composition

As an example: when talking about color, we suggested that skies don't have to be blue (and grass green.) Sometimes just introducing less-than-expected color choices (red, turquoise, lavender skies) can shake up an artist's style and make their work stand out.

We packed a LOT into this presentation. Honestly, almost any topic covered could be expanded into its own workshop. Thanks to the great NESCBWI staff and to everyone who attended our little talk!

Highlights: Dinosaur!

The May 2011 Highlights Magazine features the poem, Dinosaur, by Myra Cohn Livingston -- illustrated by ME!
I've drawn lots of dinosaurs in my day but not many dino skeletons. After settling on a composition, I set out to learn the basic mechanics of my fossilized friend. I did this by studying dozens of dino, rhino and elephant skeletons.
I'm a big fan of the "drawing through method" which simply means drawing things as if they were made of glass. So rather than draw a big dino skull and guessing where the body, legs and tail might fall, I drew every body part, whether it showed in the final illustration or not. I then combined the bits and pieces in Photoshop and voila!
"Drawing through" gives me confidence in my work -- and I hope it translates into more believable illustrations. Here's some early versions of the illustration.

The Truth About Witches

The Truth About Witches, a book I illustrated for Capstone Press, is out!

The book, written by Eric Braun, is a fun overview of witchiness–from folklore to the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I got to draw characters from The Wizard of Oz, The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, Harry Potter and even Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona!

While working on this book I came to the realization that drawing ugly is FUN! Fun and liberating. When drawing a witch, if I made the nose too big – who cares?! Heck, make it bigger! While creating these witch characters, the more exaggerated or twisted the better.

Drawing normal people–and in particular children–is more restrictive. If I draw a child with a big nose, there's a good chance that will age him or her; the child can quickly start looking like a diminutive adult.

I altered my digital-painting approach with this project by skipping a step. Rather than make one last precise and clean pencil drawing, and paint over that, I used my somewhat sketchy "rough" drawing underneath the digital color.

Why skip a step? Partially, it was a time-management issue. Also, I felt that my sketchy, "rough" drawings had more energy and life than the clean, traced versions. I'm happy with the final artwork and am glad I decided to streamline my process in this way.

Copyright page (and cover image) with a couple witches concocting a spell.

What does a Witch look like? This spread sums it up: pointy hat, rotten teeth, hairy wart and a pointy chin.

A witch with her familiar. And a very unlucky centipede.

The Sea Witch and the Little Mermaid. I dig the eels and crabs in the witches seaweed hair!

Illustration Friday: Dusty

I created this little guy for the Illustration Friday topic "dusty."

I participated this week because I've been itching to try a different digital painting technique and rather than experiment on a client's project, I used this mummy as my guinea pig. Below is a breakdown of the steps and stages taken to create this illustration.

ROUGH SKETCH:

Here is the one (and only) rough sketch. Typically I spend more time exploring different poses and character design, but I was eager to start painting.

FINAL DRAWING:

I scanned the rough sketch and printed it at 5% opacity. The sketch printed very lightly, but dark enough that I could still see the lines. I drew the final drawing directly over the printout.

FINAL DRAWING 2:

After scanning the Final Drawing, I realized I preferred some of the details of the Rough Sketch. Using my drawing tablet (Wacom Cintiq), I changed the teeth and erased some bandages around the mummy's head.

TONAL LAYER:

Here's where I started exploring a new painting technique. Before jumping into color, I painted the values. My hope is that by starting with lights and darks, the final drawing will have more clearly defined volume and structure. I'll also be more aware of how the lights and darks are organized in the composition.

COLORIZE TONAL LAYER:

In traditional painting, adding black to darken colors can make for a muddy painting. Using Hue Saturation, I gave the tonal layer some warmth. Did I mention I'm working in Photoshop? I'm working in Photoshop.

COLOR 1:

Here I started adding color in a layer set to "multiply." This tints the color effectively and works well in the darker values of the drawing.

COLOR 2:

Here's where the illustration really comes to life. On another layer set to "normal," I started adding color and line. The color on this layer is "opaque" and without it, the painting feels flat – like a tinted greyscale image.

I'm pleased with the final illustration. The tonal painting gave me a strong foundation for the color. Adding the lights and darks early also makes me more aware of their effect on composition and how the lights and darks lead the viewer's eye around the drawing.

I also used the project to experiment with character design. Typically, my people (or creatures) have natural proportions, whereas this mummy has a Charlie Brown body.

I had a blast creating this little guy.

2010: The Year in Pictures

Zombies. Elves. Witches. Cowboys. And a Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Just another year of in the life of an illustrator. And even though I may occasionally complain about deadlines or eye strain or my sore back, I do appreciate the fact I get paid to draw stuff.

A Merry Christmas Card

Merry Christmas and the happiest of holidays to all!

My agent, Bernadette Szost at Portfolio Solutions, asked all of us illustrators to draw a mouse with a wreath for the agency's holiday promo. Each artist gave the assignment their own unique twist. I considered several ideas (a mouse riding a frog through a burning wreath, a la Evil Knievel, was one) but settled on this concept-- inspired by a childhood craft project (macaroni art) and Stephen Soundheim's musical, Sunday in the Park with George.

My "Illustrious" Past

Oh, dear.

My mom recently found this ancient newspaper clipping. That's the back of my head along with a fine example of my early artistic stylings.

At the time, I was a lowly dairy clerk. I probably volunteered to draw on the chalkboard–and the management was happy to "take advantage" of my talent.

I was just happy to take a break from stocking shelves.

I had mischievous fun with many chalkboards. I recall a spaceship blowing up the store with a death ray. A dinosaur devouring the meat department manager. And Bill Clinton looking for a date on Valentine's Day. That last one received complaints, but my boss took the heat and spared the eraser.

It wasn't the best art gig I've ever had, but it was fun to have an audience. I would often get a crowd watching me draw. And I did develop a following of sorts – heck, the local paper even did a story about me!

And to those vandals who occasionally besmirched my work – HOW COULD YOU?!

I hope you are haunted by remorse.