Workflow - China: The Sleeping Dragon

Rough in basic shapes and layout

Basic colours

Detailing on the dragon's head

Add the bubble and more details to the dragon

Transition from dragon to wall (giant leap forward cos I worked on it at uni)

Add mountains and structures for Great Wall

My fave bit? The Chinese flag stars around her sleeping eye

Magazine Illustration: Rationale

The very first criteria listed in this assignment, was to select an article of substance from an existing magazine, this ruled out most of the magazines currently found at newsagents. I selected the article from TIME magazine as they are a publication well known for their journalistic integrity and their choice of story subject matter. I knew that I wanted something completely removed from animation or illustration and I knew that I wanted it to be dry and topical. These two factors dictated my selection of an article detailing the current economic situation in China and its’ far reaching ramifications.

Having studied political cartoons as a student of history I am aware of the iconographic visuals associated with various countries in certain contexts and this is why I choose to depict China as the sleeping dragon. The dragon is red in colour like the Chinese flag and around its sleeping eye can be seen the 5 stars that also make up the flag, the flag was important to include as it represents the country and also the theme of nationalism. The design of the actual dragon itself was very important as it is based upon the Chinese dragons often seen in temples and as a symbolic representation of the emperor. The dragon’s claw rests on the globe indicating as mentioned in the feature article the impact of an economic crisis in China across the globe. In my mind when the dragon is woken her first reaction would be to clutch and smash the earth which is in keeping (metaphorically) with the article’s themes of global economic turmoil. As the body of the dragon disappears into the distance it becomes the Great Wall of China, yet another symbolic icon of the country of China and important in defining the sleeping dragon as representing China herself. Above the dragon’s head (a shadow can be seen just above her horns) is bubble filled with houses. This is a direct interpretation of the false economy created by an inflated housing boom and the economic metaphor of a bubble that must eventually burst after a period of rapid growth. Once the bubble bursts, the houses will fall and awaken the dragon- this illustration correlates directly to the ideas within the feature article and creates a visual representative summation of the article’s themes.

 Once the illustration was created I faced the problem of making its look fit the magazine’s context. TIME magazine is a rather serious magazine that deals with socio political and economic issues from across the globe, therefore when looking at the coloured version of my illustration I found that it was a little too childlike or fantasy art based. The final design of a predominantly black and white image with the dragon and globe in colour provided a stark contrast whilst invoking a sense of seriousness and iconographic imagery associated with the country of China.

Final Full Colour Dragon

Final Assessment: Magazine Editorial

For this assignment we had to select a magazine article 'of substance' and illustrate it accordingly. My illustration is based on a TIME magazine article about the current economic situation in China and how the potential collapse of the growth period may lead to a global financial recession or worse.

Final illustration: took 2 and a half days to complete

Skateboard Deck Design

Something completely different for me, skateboard deck design for a pro-model skateboard. Had to consist of a tri colour palette.

Studio Set Up for Portrait

My studio, complete with old school 'dual screens' lol

Portrait Complete

The finished portrait, I'm pleased with her likeness. Also pleased that was able to digitally paint her in colour rather than simply going with the black and white original.

Sexy

Illustration Portrait: The Process

The original photograph by Milton Greene in black and white only, I used colour photographs of Marilyn as reference for her colouring. 

Done in Photoshop CS3 using Wacom over approx 3 days.

basic sketch

block in shapes

skin tones

reference picture of different pose helps with her colouring

Cigarette and more depth to shadows

lips and teeth- a challenge to avoid tombstone syndrome

eyes and eyebrow with rough sketch for guidance

The cardi- pale blue own choice to compliment her hair and pale complexion

Blocking in hair and tonal values

Softening the hair

Illustration for Design

This week's task was to do very basic storyboards based on the animated film, The Iron Giant.

Anatomy of an Illustration

Screen shots of the Rapunzel illustration: Photoshop CS3 & Wacom

Rapunzel

This is the second illustration for my design subject wherein we had to illustrate a character from a classic children's tale, in this case the Brothers Grimm, Rapunzel. In the space below the illustration is where the following text will be placed:

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then her hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

In this illustration I really wanted to capture the sense of longing that the teenage Rapunzel must have felt being locked in the tower. The character’s stance and the way in which she has been digitally painted has been largely inspired by pre-raphaelite artists such as Waterhouse. I wanted Rapunzel to appear elegant and wistful in her loneliness. The moon has been included as the moon is often associated with femininity in particular during adolescence.




I made a concerted effort to avoid any semblance to Disney’s Tangled, which is why I adopted a more painterly approach to this illustration and a focus on details that help ‘tell the story.’ It appears as though every strand of her ‘golden’ hair has been drawn and up to 5 different colours have been used to give the hair a sense of density. Entwined in her hair are rampion flowers / herbs that are intrinsically connected to the Brothers Grimm tale of Rapunzel. Both styles of flowers in her hair are rampions and the largest blue flower is a Rampion called Rapunzel. Another direct connection to the Brothers Grimm text is the inclusion of the hook that Rapunzel uses to lift the enchantress into the tower. In this illustration I have included two single strands of hair and a broken rampion flower that seem to have been caught in the hook. This detail allows a connection between the hook and the character and furthermore adds to a sense of movement in the atmosphere perhaps eluding to the height of the tower.



The clothing the character is wearing is again a reference to the pre-raphaelite artists, with detailed wing sleeves and gold thread brocade similar to that of a noblewoman of the Middle Ages. Given that the story is European in origin it was important that her clothing emulated a period in European history often associated with fairy tales such as Rapunzel. The gold thread brocade also helps to connect the illustration through colour theme. Her skirt was heavily influenced by the stained glass windows of European cathedrals. I felt that this inclusion aided in giving the scene a more grounded sensibility, moving it away from the whimsical pink drenched cartoon version of the tale. I wanted this piece to be connected to the idea of an illuminated manuscript helping to convey the seriousness of the tale given the violent and somewhat morbid second half of the narrative. For this reason I felt that this Brothers Grimm version of the story would be aimed at young adults aged 15- 18.


Done in photoshop on wacom.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

The following illustration is part of an assignment for Illustration at uni. We had to illustrate a character, in this case Count Olaf from a children's story- Lemony Snicketts A Series of Unfortunate Events. This is the illustration only, I still have to work on layout for the page as if it were a part of a picture book. The following extract will accompany the visuals:

                  "What?" Count Olaf asked. "No roast beef?"
                  "You didn't tell us you wanted roast beef," Klaus said.
Count Olaf slid toward the children so that he looked even taller than he was. His eyes grew even brighter, and his one eyebrow raised in anger. "In agreeing to adopt you," he said, "I have become your father, and as your father I am not someone to be trifled with. I demand that you serve roast beef to myself and my guests."
                 "We don't have any!" Violet cried. "We made puttanesca sauce!"
                 "No! No! No!" Sunny shouted.
Count Olaf looked down at Sunny, who had spoken so suddenly.

The idea was to use descriptions from the book to guide your character design, there's a movie as well- but I've not seen it and from what I have read of the books, this would be my first and last encounter with the series. Created in photoshop on wacom.

Rationale:

I have never read the books, Lemony Snicketts: A Series of Unfortunate Events, therefore my first task was to become familiar with the writing style and target audience of the novels before commencing any type of sketches. I was an English teacher for 10 years prior undertaking my current degree and do remember that this series of novels was most popular with both boys and girls in grades 6-8 (approx aged 11- 13). With this knowledge I knew that any illustration had to contain an element of the ‘ick’ factor to bring to life a character that is written to be cold and repulsive in the eyes of the orphans in the novel. It is this vision of Olaf that is most aligned with the sympathies and ages of the readers themselves.


The layout of the illustration was inspired by the accompanying text wherein Olaf seems to tower over the children, I wanted him to seem almost spectre like rising up and over them in an intimidating manner- this also helps to display his role in the narrative. He is reaching out towards Sunny (as stipulated in the associated text) but his attention has been briefly focused towards Violet as his beady bright eyes rest on her for a moment. There is something almost dismissive in the way that his body continues on its original path towards the crying baby, yet pauses for a moment to hear the other children protest (as per the text).

The colour palette in this piece is decidedly cool, blue greys and shades of green add to the sense of coldness in the character of Olaf. Black outline in keeping with a cartoon style enables the character to be drawn in a scary spectre manner without forgetting the sensibilities of the target audience aged 11-13 years old. The description in the novel identifies Olaf as wearing a grey coat complete with stains. Upon further research I came up with the idea that he was clearly a flamboyant individual (evidenced by his passion for the theatre) but that everything he owned was old, broken or in disrepair. This is why I have included gold-threaded brocade around the sleeves of the coat, as it gives me the opportunity to show a faded jaded character- the brocade is faded and threads are coming off it as if it had been worn every day. The stains are badges of ‘dishonour’, they reveal the lie of his character in that he craves to be wealthy and to embody his desired social class- yet everything about his appearance is cloaked in unkempt eccentricity (unshaven, dirty, no socks).

The orphans have been deliberately illustrated in a reversed negative style to echo the way in which Olaf sees them, as orphans- not as individual children with personalities and identities. Their colourless appearance helps to convey to the reader how Olaf interacted with the orphans and additionally conveys the orphans role in the narrative at this early part of the first novel wherein they are predominantly reactionary to Olaf to set up the over- riding conflict for the series.

Photoshop and Wacom were used as these are most pertinent to my animation skill set.