Monday, 12 January 2009

'Contained'


I've not done any children's illustration drawing since before the Christmas break, so thought I'd warm up by doing the Illustration Friday topic, which this week is 'Contained'. If you haven't yet heard of Illustration Friday, see
Illustration Friday.

I decided to go with the idea of things contained within other things' bellies, which is best explained by my sketch:

I didn't really want to commit the amount of time needed to colour it in pastels, so resorted to digital colouring once again, in Corel painter. I used the brushes that emulate oil pastels and pastels. When I'd finished, I didn't think the black line was quite strong enough, so I duplicated and overlaid it again in Photoshop, so that the sketch was double strength, which works much better.


I still don't like the end result quite as much as a pastel drawing, but I'm definitely getting better at it. The last children's-style illustration I coloured in this way was also for Illustration Friday, for the topic 'Balloon':


I still like the idea and the underlying drawing, but the colours and marks here are quite crude by comparison I think. What do you reckon?

18 comments:

  1. Sweet-Lemmon12 January 2009 at 17:27

    Oh my, I loved it! This is adorable! I agree with you about the pastel drawing comparison(sp?) but I still really liked the result here. Not to mention that their expressions are priceless! <3

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  2. Unknown12 January 2009 at 18:02

    well, you know I love the idea of a cute animals being eaten! I've never used coral painter, but I've heard so much good stuff about it being able to emulate real painting better than photoshop. You do quite a good job with it! And, I bet, it's less messy than pastels!

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  3. Valerie Lorimer12 January 2009 at 18:39

    Love the dog and cat illo! It's darling and just made me laugh.

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  4. CARLADALY12 January 2009 at 18:40

    I think the both look great but can see a difference between the two. Very funny ideas!

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  5. Anonymous12 January 2009 at 19:54

    fun idea, love the cat!

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  6. J. E. Morris13 January 2009 at 04:32

    I think it looks great. Very cute subject. I like the expression on the dog's face.

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  7. Catalina Alvarez13 January 2009 at 07:43

    I love the result!
    Your characters are amazing.
    Happy 2009!
    Cata

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  8. Jess13 January 2009 at 09:15

    Great drawings, and we seem to think alike! Personally I prefer the old fashioned hands on media and not digital colouring but your underlying artwork is so brilliant you make it work.x

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  9. April Jarocka13 January 2009 at 12:01

    Incidentally Lynne how long did it take you to colour it all in digitally?
    I have no idea how long these things take, and I like the idea of corel.

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  10. Lynne the Pencil13 January 2009 at 12:22

    I'm not entirely sure how long I spent, but probably around an hour once I'd got it scanned in. If you know what you want to achieve it can be very quick indeed, but I am still feeling my way.

    The beauty of digital colouring though, is that you can experiment without messing up the original. I had a go with the watercolour brushes first, but hated the result and switched to oil pastels. Then I decided that was too harsh and worked into it with the pastel brushes.

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  11. Tomás Serrano13 January 2009 at 20:25

    The dog that contains the cat and the fish is fantastic. I like the result. The character of the octopussy is very funny. The colors of the balloon... Mmmmm... I prefer pastels. You are a master with pastels.

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  12. Catilustre13 January 2009 at 20:37

    hahaha, This is too funny, I love their characters!

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  13. kathy hare13 January 2009 at 22:43

    a lovely and witty illustration..

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  14. April Jarocka14 January 2009 at 14:02

    Thanks for that Lynne!

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  15. Anonymous15 January 2009 at 04:57

    What a laugh! I wonder what's inside the fish?
    Your artwork is truely amazing :)

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  16. Roberta15 January 2009 at 07:09

    Hmmmm....So who's going to swallow that dog...
    Love your sense of humor!

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  17. Caroline15 January 2009 at 14:07

    This illo really made me laugh! Very witty interpretation and nicely executed!!

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  18. Anonymous16 January 2009 at 10:46

    VERY appealing. Very fluid. Very funny. Nothing lost, and something gained.

    Julia Jarman x

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