Tuesday, 14 July 2009

The Fox and the Crow

I had a portfolio surgery at the Association of Illustrators HQ yesterday and they advised me to give my drawings some context and to try to create backgrounds for my characters, rather than just having drawings of different characters on their own.

So this morning I've made these rough versions of a drawing for the Aesops fable 'The Fox and the Crow' (as I do enjoy drawing both of these animals very much ^_^). I made the line drawing and then decided to have a play around with it in photoshop to see what colours worked best.



Any feedback or thoughts any of you guys have would be awesome before I start on the final piece. I think I might do the real one in watercolours, (a watercolour wash in the background would be pretty) and do all the elements seperately so I can play around with the composition and depth afterwards and make sure it's perfect. I might also add some other animals behind the trees, peeking out at the action.

Anyway, that's been my morning! Hope you're all well and happy,
Rachael xxx

P.S. I had a scout around my local bookshop for new children's books that caught my eye so I could see what was being done now, get some inspiration, etc - and I found 'Dogger' (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dogger-Red-Fox-picture-books/dp/009992790X). I loved this book so much! It really took me back. If anything I create makes a kid feel like this book made me feel years ago - then I'll be super happy!

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4 comments:

  1. Sally Rose Renner14 July 2009 at 14:10

    I'm really interested to hear about your portfolio session with AOI as I'm planning to do that too.... but I'm a bit scared! Are they nice and helpful? Well done you for all the great stuff you've been doing. I'm really enjoying all your lovely pics x

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  2. Anonymous14 July 2009 at 15:42

    The drawing itself is nice, but the coloring still has that issue where you're not covering the areas behind the lines' edges, which unfortunately looks very unprofessional. If you're using Photoshop, remember to color onto a separate layer behind the lines and use magic wand + expand selection to set up the fill area (and disable "all layers" on the paint bucket tool).

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  3. ATom174614 July 2009 at 23:15

    Hey Racheal!

    I say 'Hey Racheal!' like you know me, but you don't. But don't worry I'm not crazy or anything (even though that is exactly what a crazy person would say)

    It would be worth playing around with some shading/shadows a bit, it can be really quick and easy and will give your illustrations some depth.
    Check out the 'Flight' anthology series, its a colaboration of some amazing comic artists. Looking through these books and studying the broad range of work and styles has been really helpful and inspirational for me.

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  4. Rachael Smith19 July 2009 at 13:45

    @sally:
    AOI were really helpful! You should totally go. They want me to come back in a few weeks with some new ideas and more context - which I guess is a good sign? Hehe!

    @fluffy:
    Yes I know, sorry! It was just because this piece was just an experiment to get composition and colours right. I need to work on that though, thanks for your help! I'm hopefully going to use your advice for the third stage ^_^;;

    @ATom1746:
    Thanks for the help, I will definitely look up those comics! And for the record I don't /think/ you're crazy...but the jury's still out : p

    R xxxxxxxxxxxx

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