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sebastian's sink city

27/7/2016

I am just about ready to submit the second set of artworks for assessment to the London Art College's correspondence course D6 Illustrating Children's Books.

Of the set, the second part is a major project, a double page spread.

The brief went something like this: Allow for a text area taking up about 1/3 of the left hand page. Sebastian is seen to either build or find an imaginary world under the kitchen sink. Make it detailed with a cartoony edge, and use good contrasts of scale. Allow a 30mm border between the trimmed edge of the page and the start of the text. The text was not supplied.

Here's the layout idea from my sketchbook:

And my pencil roughs:

The next part was to add the ink.

And then add a bit more ink, increasing the lights and darks and adding more detail.

Next I took some photocopies, and used coloured pencils to test my colour arrangement ideas.

It seemed like having minimum colour on Sebastian made for a better flow from text area to city, and made the city the feature of the double page spread.

Now to begin the watercolour work. Masking fluid first. For this part it was easier to take photos rather than scans. I started with the browns and beiges.

Then came some blues and greens.

Followed by yellows and reds.

Then some skin tones on Sebastian, and fine tonal detail. The little people still need colour.

Here's the final raw artwork, with the bleed area still present.

Now to stitch it together with Photoshop and remove a few minor blemishes.

And what it would look like with the 5mm bleed removed, in a picture book.

And lastly, how a bit of text would look.

I'm very pleased that this project is finished. I enjoyed it, but it took a lot of work to complete.

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contrast in scale

25/7/2016

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I am just about ready to submit the second set of artworks for assessment to the London Art College's correspondence course D6 Illustrating Children's Books.

The first part of each set is smaller and easier, and the second one is a major project.

This time the smaller part of the project was about contrast in scale, ink work, texture and lighting.

For this one the brief was very detailed. I needed to think about some kind of household cleaning product's bottle and imagine it as a building. Next to the building a small creature was needed (person or animal or alien)/ that would intrigue and engage a child but not frighten them. Lighting had to come in from one side, black ink was the medium to be used, and texture had to be used to both differentiate and unite both objects on the A4 page.

Firstly we had to work-up some roughs, and so experiment with the ideas we had.
Here's my sketchbook page:

The bottle to the far right and the bird-like creature under it became the raw ideas for the final artwork. Here it is in its needing to be cleaned state:

And what the final work looked like after it was cleaned up a bit, with the underlying pencil marks removed:

I love doing this kind of ink work, and it proved to be very good preparation for the second (major) part of the project.

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2016 CYA Conference competition

24/7/2016

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This year was my first entry in the CYA Conference competition in the Aspiring category. Previously I was in the Hatchling category.

There were two options, either to illustrate up to three artworks for a given portion of picture book text or to illustrate up to three artworks for a given portion of middle grade text.

I chose the latter, and here is the given text:

© Tina Marie Clark – Squire Chambers
(Chapter Book: 543 Words extract. Aimed at 6 – 9 years.)

‘Holy barn-hay!’ Owen exclaimed. ‘Look at the size of the floater in that!’ He stared into the porcelain chamber pot.
A huge turd stared back up at him.
The wooden peg on his nose was the only thing saving him from the offending smell that filled the air. This was the worst part of being a squire, emptying the knight’s chamber pots when they were in residence at Highglen Castle, and not just using the bushes like when going to tournaments or to war.
It was a disgusting job. But as Sir Quentin had told him, someone had to do it, and as he was the youngest squire of all the knights still in attendance in the castle, it was his duty. Remove the debris, toss that out, then empty each pot carefully into the jugs that the fullers would collect.
Sir Quentin has made him visit the fullers and see how they used the stale urine to remove the fat and dirt from the woollen fabric they made.
‘At least I’m not a fuller’s apprentice,’ he said, thinking of the way they spent all day stamping with their bare feet on the cloth soaking in the urine.
He shuddered and shook his head. ‘Think happy, Owen!’
For a moment his mind drifted to the huge house on the estate that belonged to his father. When on misty mornings like this one, the chamber maid would be the one to remove the pots, not him. He would have already rushed out to the sheep sheds to watch the sheering.
But Sir Quentin had come to his home, and chosen him, the thinnest, scrawniest bow legged boy to be his squire. To follow in his father’s footsteps and one day be a knight, and fight for his King.
Slowly balancing the pot on his arm, he pushed the heavy door open.
At the exact moment it swung open and something solid hit him full on, taking his breath away.
The pot went flying through the air.
‘No!’ Owen cried as he saw it somersault over.
It landed with a sickening thunk sound.
On top of Sir Quentin’s head.
The pot fitted Sir Quentin perfectly like a porcelain helmet!
He watched as in slow-motion, the urine and poop slide down Sir Quentin’s face, and drip on to his clean arming coat that he had laid out neatly for Sir Quentin just an hour ago.
‘Run!’ shouted his brain.
But his legs would not work, they solidified and lime mortared themselves to the stone floor beneath.
‘Sir Quentin, I’m sorry, you opened the door and I opened the door and...’ Owen said waiting for the outrage that he was certain would follow.
Sir Quentin cleared his throat. ‘It’s a simple job, Owen, you take the pot each day and you empty the solids out, and put the liquid in the jugs. You ensure it doesn’t land on anyone. S-i-m-p-l-e.
‘Yes, Sir Quentin.’
‘Make sure it doesn’t happen again. Remember, part of the code of chivalry as a knight is also “Humility”, and believe me I’m showing you lots of that right now. Bring clean undergarments to my room and some warm water to wash.’
‘Yes, Sir Quentin.’
‘Now boy! Before my patience wears off.’
Owen fled.

For the first illustration I chose the part where Owen is looking down into the smelly contents of the chamber pot.

For the second illustration I chose the part where Owen is remembering life back on the family estate.

For the third illustration I chose the part where both Quentin and Owen have just worked out where the contents of the chamber pot landed.

For colour I used coloured pencils because I enjoy using them for this kind of illustration because it gives me greater certainty of the final colour on the page than mixing the watercolours. That certainty is useful in getting colour consistency in a series of illustrations containing the same character.

I was very pleased to receive a Highly Commended for my entry.

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sebastian's sink city

contrast in scale

2016 CYA Conference competition

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