Illustration steps for 'On Reflection'

A passage of time shown within my illustration. My previous post was the birth of the concept below. Working backwards you can see how I fill out the illustration. I'm a bugger going straight for the biggest thing (the tree) but I did make sure I created a draft piece first (bottom pic) to allow me to understand where I wanted light and shade. Because this piece is for me, I've allowed myself to make changes as I've gone along, I still am! I can be a bit changeable, but that's only when I'm working on a picture for myself, for others I like to get the idea pretty much finalised and if there's some changes they shouldn't be too big. I like using pencil, but this piece is A2 and I feel like throwing all my pencils out of the window! I'll post the finished piece soon :)

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"Where do the ideas for your illustrations come from?"...'On Reflection'

I get asked quite a lot, especially at the studio, where my ideas come from. This question has lead me to take a look at where 'in me' they come from, because they have to come from somewhere, right?

Sometimes I get a flash of an image, like a subliminal message on a t.v screen that lasts only a mere second (these are little buggers to bring into concept), some images come from listening to music and at times I build an image from what is currently happening in my life or something I say which evokes strong images.

Recently I wrote the line "How can one person navigate a two person boat?" My thinking behind that is when it's necessary to navigate dark unchartered emotional waters, especially in relationships, there needs to be two people at the helm. A relationship is afterall a two way thing. It's hard to steer a two person boat on your own when the other person is needed for their understanding of what they know of those dark waters.

Anyway's, this little picture popped into my head. A very Nordic almost Viking boat, with one person very much on their own having to create their own light and understanding of those dark waters to be able to navigate to safety. It's early days yet but I think it'll be done in soft dark pencil and I'm extremely excited to have a new idea for a drawing/illustration.

 

 

hubble bubble, toil and computer aided colour

Well, i think it's possibly finished, finally. I didn't want to put too much colour into this image as i think it works better with the suggestion of hue. I'm waiting to hear from the client and then hopefully i can hand it over soon. I have a 2nd one to do for them and am chomping at the bit to get that going. It's all formulating inside this brain, so i need to get that down on paper. I'm pretty pleased with this image as a whole.

now to drink some tea and eat some toast to celebrate....