Eeevery once in a while, I get to do an illustration at work. up until now I have been doing them with Painter IX but this is the first one I did with good ol fashion paint and paper! (and since I did it at home one night it meant I could leave work early today! what a bonus!)
This one is for a flyer about teacher's aides in schools. a bit of an hommage to loobylu, really. but it just came out like that, I swear!
here is the 2nd music book cover I've been working on for a friend. I'm really happy with the outcome, though I can't say I would want to do another fiddley collage like this any time soon! It almost did my head in! Luckily he liked the first one so much that he wants to use it for 2 of the 3 books, with just a colour change in Photoshop, so this is the last one! YAY! can't wait to see it in print!
*update, tuesday July 18, 3 days after original post (scroll down to see original)
I decided to try this one again. Much easier to compare apples with apples, no?
Looking at my original painting later, I wasn't totally happy with the colours - they weren't rich enough, so here I have made them more saturated, and added some dry brush for texture. I like this better, i think it adds to the drama of it.
Now for the black line. Well, harrumph, I'm still not happy with this, I may just have to do it AGAIN until I get it RIGHT. I'm not sure if it's the fact that they're in black or if it's just the lines themselves... I might try some different patterns, and also just breaking them up a bit here and there - the black still makes it feel heavy but at the same time I like the way it makes the colours pop...
don't think I'll make another I-F link but I will post here if I do it again.
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The Scorpion and the Frog
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too."
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"
Replies the scorpion: "It's my nature..."
(okay so I used a bit of artistic license in my version)
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That's the inspiration for this piece, and I want to say a bit about the technique. I am getting increasingly happier with my gouache-that-look-like-watercolour backgrounds. They are a lot of fun to do. I tried to stay really loose on this one and not worry about outlining every single thing. Funny, as I was painting, I would catch myself going to paint around something oh-so-closely, and then think 'no! stop! keep it loose!' I guess it's not in my nature :-) but it is still something I want to try doing.
I tried the lines in a different colour this time, and no black border. I do like it better without the border - it lets it free (except that my scanner wasn't big enough and cut it off on the RHS...) The lines I painted too dark at first and had to blot them out a bit. Not too sure about them. The characters outlines I did with black coloured pencil and had to go over them a few times to make them dark enough. They're still not really dark enough in my opinion, but I hate going over lines more than once, it makes it looked contrived. So, some victories, some defeats. Try, try again....
I have always admired and loved japanese and chinese art. the dark black against the bright white, the simplicity, the strength, the confidence of brush stroke, the bold use of limited colour, the peace. When I saw a japanese calligraphy class advertised in my local art supply store, first class free, all materials supplied, only two blocks away from my house, I couldn't resist.
I went yesterday for my first introductory class. It was just two other students, Sally and Pete, and the teacher, Junko, and I. It is conducted in the front room of her house where the walls are adorned by beautiful long scrolls made of kimono material, with large kanji characters on rice paper in the middle, origami characters and little poems framed in bamboo, some so graceful, some just plain cute. She had books filled with the 3000 kanji characters written in up to 6 styles, the different types of calligraphy developed as successive emperors made their marks on their people.
We drank green tea and I looked at the materials in front of me. a long pointed brush, already wet, a little stand for the brush, a well for the sumi ink, a metal 'paperweight' pinning down the sheet of white rice paper. so daunting that little piece of paper. Each student practiced a single character for the entire hour. My character was 'eternity' made up of 8 strokes. Each stroke must be done in order. Junko showed me gracefully how to do this. My first one was horrible! She told me I should paint with my arm, not with my wrist, that the brush should never twist and should always be held at a 45 degree angle to the paper - you let the bristles do the work for you. My last attempt at 'Eternity' was pretty good. She taught me to write my name and gave me a little red stamp (like a gold star!) and said I did very well for my first time!
I left everything there because it was raining so much and I didn't want it to get wet, so I came home and tried it again, before I forgot how to do it. I dug out a chinese calligraphy brush I got as a present ages ago and used my trusty ol india ink - above is my best result yet!
I love the way you can see the brush strokes, I think that's because this is on watercolour paper as opposed to very smooth rice paper, so it is picking up that texture. The little symbols in the left hand corner is my name (Ki-mu) - which I didn't do very well. I also don't really like my name, it's boring, so next time I might see if there's another way to write it. (yes, I think I will go back!)
Interestingly, last night as I was doing my I-F piece, I could already feel the influence of the japanese calligraphy in my painting. I think it will affect it in a good way.
3 great things happened yesterday:
1- I finished updating my website (see post below) - hooray!
2- My first issue of Artists & Illustrators magazine arrived. I haven't had the chance to read through it all yet, but there are lots of interviews with different artists and articles on different techniques and inspiration. can't wait to sink my teeth in.
3- I had a fantastic meeting with illustrator Dean Gorissen. I'm all about meeting other illustrators at the moment because even though I love illustration, it can be a lonely thing to do. Dean's wife works with a friend of mine, and he graciously spent almost 2 hours with me, talking about art, showing me his work, going through my folio and commenting on what he thinks works/doesn't work. I left with my mind swirling with ideas and thoughts. I can't wait to sit down and try some of the suggestions he made about my painting, this weekend for sure.
He said he thought my digital work was of professional quality but my painting still needs to reach that 'next level.' and I totally agree. He made some suggestions for refining it. He liked all the details of the black line, but thought the black itself made the pieces look heavy and weighed down, especially with the black border. So I might try doing some of the linework in different colours in my next piece. Of course, this is just one person's opinion, but it is the opinion of someone who has been in the business for many years now, who is successful, and who knows the market. I'm still in experimental stages so I'm willing to try anything and see where it takes me!
I am primed for the next I-F topic! hope it's a good one. Stay tuned sportsfans.....
I finally did it! I'd been putting it off for months now, but i finally pushed it to the top of the list. Please check it out (click on the picture above) - I would love to hear feedback of any shape and size. You will notice most of the 'trad' work is my I-F postings. So thanks to I-F!! it has given me a whole new folio to promote!
Cheers
lil kim.
I'm trying a new technique of laying a washy first layer and then doing some dry brush stuff on top to create texture. I'm quite liking the way it's progressing so I think I might stick with it and see where it goes. It is such a journey this, discovering one's style, but I am having so much fun doing it!
I do wonder sometimes if there ever will be an end to the road. Do you finally find something and say 'this is it. this is my style. this is how i will do things forever.' or is it ALWAYS evolving? Personally, i find I get bored easily when things stay the same for too long, so I imagine this path of discovery will continue for the rest of my artistic career. I guess it really is about the journey and not the destination...
This was a hard one to paint, emotionally. I love dragonflys and hate spiders. especially here in Australia where spiders are as big as your hand. It's true! The stories you hear - they're all true. Well, they're not all deadly but they're still scary as hell!
When I was in high school in Montreal and would stay at my friend's house, if there were any spiders she would make me kill them with a shoe before we went to sleep. Of course these were about the size of your little finger. When she came out to Australia for my wedding this year, she said "will you kill all the spiders for me?" ...um, well, er.... it's different here.... but I did my best. We had a resident huntsman spider (those are the big ones, and the name just inspires confidence doesn't it?) which my husband dealt with. Then I sprayed this stuff all around the house which is supposed to create an "invisible barrier" for all insects. Well I must have barrier'd them all in because in the ensuing few days I never saw so many creatures in the house!! By the time my friend arrived i had gotten rid of most of them, but one night we are sitting chatting with my brother and he looks up and says with great awe 'oh kim there's this massive huntsman behind you' - I wouldn't let my friend look. It was huge. It's better not to have those images in your head.
Looking at this piece now after this story I think I could have made the spider bigger and scarier, or maybe even just have done a few big legs coming out of the corner. But maybe it's better like this, just for my own peace of mind...
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