Illustration Workshop - Kick in the Pants, Here I Come!

[wayfaringwordhack]

I have dedicated as much time and energy as I could this past week to prepping for my workshop with children's book illustrator Maya Fidawi.  Her beautifully-colored work is fun and fresh, full of heart, whimsy and glimpses of Lebanese life.  I am very excited for the opportunity to learn from her.

Since I had set aside my art supplies at the beginning of summer to do All the Things That Needed Doing, I wanted to get my fingers "dirty" and my artistic mind warmed up again.  So, I worked out a rough draft* for a book idea I had a couple of months ago,** did some color work with watercolors,*** then decided to rework my plan with different colors in gouache.  And I worked on some character design and began a storyboard.  And watched documentaries. 

The first color attempts have a very classic feel, and the complementary colors aren't the punchy combo I was going for.  The color study penguins are also way too realistic for what I want to do.  I wasn't *trying* for character design at this point, but the colors and forms really drove home what I *don't* want to do.



The gouache colors are much more in line with the story's feel, but not the colors straight out of the tube (the one's at the top). :P 



I did a couple of sketches with my left hand (I am a lefty) and still found them too typical.  Maya suggested I try with my right hand, eyes closed. :P I told her that i tend to prefer what I do with my right hand but I have never added the difficulty of doing it with my eyes closed.  I got a couple of attempts that I like. 



 
Some landscape thumbnails and a "sponge stamped" penguin trial on the upper right. :P




First 5 spreads of the storyboard with the "cartoon" filter so you can see my pencil lines :P


_______________

* The ending is still pretty wobbly, and I don't know if I can fit in into a 32 page format; might have to go for 40, which is not the best for a Mrs. Newbie No-Name.

**I have a more polished manuscript, but the illustrative difficulty is exponentially greater with lots of cats, people, a dog, interiors, exteriors...

 

*** I started playing around making browns from my colors before I decided to work on the color palette for this project, but I like the shadow colors I got from two of my blues and decided to see if they could work.  Never know until you try. :)

 

Comments

[asakiyume]

This is all so fascinating--love the process. (Love seeing the penguin from above in your storyboard!)

I only recently learned, from one of my daughters, what gouache *is*--opaque, matte watercolor, she said? V. cool.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yes, it (gouache) was widely used by illustrators and designers pre-digital era because of the flat, matte look you can achieve. :D

[wayfaringwordhack]

regarding process: I am often so tied up in knots wanting a result or finished project that I fail to fully enjoy the different steps of the process. Two of my kiddos were playing with friends this afternoon and the mom messaged to show me what they were doing and to say they were having fun. I sent a pic of my storyboard to say what *I* was doing and then said I didn't know that I would call it fun. But you know what, I do think it can be fun. And it should be, too. It is just a way of letting your imagination run wild, commitment free.

[asakiyume]

Yes, I think it should be fun--sometimes aggravating or frustrating, but there's fun in tackling a problem, fun in trying different approaches. And what you say in your last line: fun in just letting your imagination run wild, commitment free.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yes, yet too often I let the aggravation of not Doing it Right/Well the First Time trump all other things and see the "lack of success" as a personal reproach, a true sign of my lack of skills/business doing Thing X. :P

But we don't need to go into all my neuroses every time we talk about these things. ROFL

[asakiyume]

LOL and hugs simultaneously!

I was thinking about how driven you are, and much as I disliked the book I just read, the one that's all twee and utopian and foolish, there are some things it gets right, and one is the kind of desperation you feel from the main character as they keep looking for *something*, they're not even sure what, and not finding it.

Not that you're necessarily searching or that you don't know what you're looking for ... wow, yeah, so why did I bring up the character? I guess because of the sense of tenacious desperation they exude at end. Again, not that you're doing that!! But maybe I get a whiff of that?

I feel like maybe there are a lot of things you're trying for at once: improving your skills/practicing, creating a children's picture book, obtaining success (whatever this means for you). And those things all seem to be pointing in the same direction, but they're not actually the same thing? I don't know if I'm making sense (and even if I am, I don't know if what I'm trying to say matches what you're experiencing).

But even putting aside art (or writing), I wish for you just the experience of pleasure/fun/joy, you know? Wherever and however! And without riders: just "I'm enjoying this! I love this" without a follow-up sense of "I'll sure pay for this tomorrow."

Navel gazing....again

[wayfaringwordhack]

I do understand what you mean. I need time to sit with all my expectations, etc. to try to get at the root of why I sabotage myself all the time or fear moving forward.

I started a list the other day to try to articulate some of it. I don't remember what all I put on it so far, but under the main heading of Fear (because, yes, it is a MAIN thing, isn't it, in all its manifestations?), I wrote down something I heard: "The client creates the schedule."

My brain screamed "YES! That!" when the guy said it. This idea terrifies me. As long as I piddle and do my own thing, I am the only one I am beholden to, but once I put myself out there and someone is counting on me to do the thing I said I would do or that I am being paid for, I will have to do it.

I absolutely know I can arrive at something that is non-embarrassing given enough time, but if it is not good enough for the client and they ask me to do it again, can I? When the non-embarrassing thing took me so long to achieve, how can I turn out "much better" in a short amount of time? But I will push myself to do it, and everything else in my life will have to fall by the wayside for however long it takes. I am obsessive like that. And do* I want someone else to have the power over me to dictate this? So *now* I feel like my very lifestyle is under attack. (Have you ever noticed how quickly my brain goes into Melodrama Overdrive?)

So, all of that to say, I knew all this vaguely, but it has only become clarified recently. In order to stop all the sabotaging, I need identify any fears or obstacles, then move on to finding SOLUTIONS, instead of being fatalistic.

And! First step: go into this workshop with JOY. Soak up the excitement and creative energy involved, be a positive influence on others, and enjoy all the processes and new learning experiences. I have decided that yes, I want the cost of it to push me to take myself seriously, but I want even more to be lit on fire again by my love of visual arts. :)

Re: Navel gazing....again

[asakiyume]

There you go! Applauding your determination!

[mallorys_camera]

OmyGAWD!!! I love your art and just as much, I love the glimpses you're giving us here of your creative process! It is just so fascinating.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Thank you. :D

About process, I read a good quote this morning that went something like, "Remember, you are creating out of journey, not out of destination."