Small Frei's Blog

The Scharky Escape: Tutorial

2011-11-28T14:19:00.001-08:00

With just a snap and a wink, works of art are completed. All it takes is a "born with" talent. NOT. Illustrators work very hard at composing and revising to convey tone, character, and movement in their work. My technique morphs as the job requires and with the changes in electronics and software. Scanning and home printing have allowed artists to cut production time while maintaining the look of traditional illustration. In my case, I have found that although I have a few digital illustration styles, I keep gravitating back to watercolors. I will take you through my current process.

1. Once the initial scratch sketch and the character look is complete, a grayscale drawing is done. On this illustration, #2 graphite pencil did the trick. Patterns give me joy, so I wanted to plan for them while in the drawing stage. Using cross hatching and various other techniques, I could see which areas I wanted to leave smooth and which areas to use a pattern. After scanning and opening in Photoshop, The Scharky Escape is ready for its color bath.

2. Digital color is now added in layers underneath the initial drawing which is now in "multiply" mode. Multiply makes the white drop out so you can see the underlying layers. I start with a layer of blue, then colorize the warm tones above. Once satisfied with the comp, the piece is printed to use as a color key for the final watercolor. In some instances, this comp is also used under the final (semi translucent) watercolor if the colors need a little punch.

3. This part I love. Transferring the drawing to watercolor paper used to be a bit stressful. In the old days (a few years ago), my technique involved using tracing paper, and a home made graphite carbon copy system. Messy and not always accurate. I was basicallly having to redraw the whole piece over again, with smudges.

Printing the final pencil line drawing onto my watercolor paper has cleaned up this step. I can clean up my traced sketch on-line. When printed, it is a like a clean fresh pencil drawing. No smudges, and ready to paint on.

4. Ultra Marine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Lemon Yellow, and Alizarin Crimson are my main watercolors, with a few other shades of purple, pink and green mixed in.

From the most staining colors, the glazing begins. Yellow and light blue are usually first, and reds last.

5. Either by photographing or scanning, the final watercolor is again opened in Photoshop. Adjustments to color and other slight modifications are made.

Ta Da! It is my hope that you have enjoyed this little Demonstration of my work. Stay tuned for more to come.

The Scharky Escape

Elephant and Turtle Illustration Revised

2011-09-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, what I am learning here with the quilted digital illustration style is that I tend to over pattern. It is important to use more solid colors so that the viewer can quickly see the story. I have scaled back the background and the tree so that the elephant can stand out. I really enjoyed working in this style.

Indi Zoo

2010-11-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

I finally recieved the photos of the cheetah exhibit in the Indianapolis Zoo. The Illustrations of Lauri Marker in 7 areas of the cheetah enclosure are my work. Lauri is known as "The Cheetah Lady" in the animal conservation world. I am very excited. If you visit the zoo, make sure you take a photo and send it to me. Here are a few of the displays of the final exhibit that just opened spring 2010.

Finally Finished

2010-09-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

The file is huge, but I think it is a good representation of the quilt style. I am looking forward to doing a whole book in this medium. Time consuming at first, but once I get the first few complete, it shouldn't be terribly long. The original graphic is 256mb. Wow. It is all the fabric and masking layers.

This is the piece I am going to enter in the First Look at the upcoming SCBWI-AZ Welcome to Our House. Hopefully it will be well received.

In looking for less complicated illustration styles, I find myself enjoying the depth and richness of the pieces that take me longer to develop.

Mom, if you are reading, this style is for you. I so enjoyed having the experience of you, myself and Maxine working on Cami's quilt, but just don't see myself making one on my own. I really admire the patchworking that you come up with, and hope to someday learn the skill too.

Late Day Shadows

2010-08-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Now I am getting a bit nervous about how this will work in the quilted media style. I may do the illustration in a couple styles.

Does the addition of the bird and nest make you nervous that the eggs may be doomed? I am hoping that the tree looks bowed, and the viewer will wonder what will happen after he lets go of the branch. In the original folktale, things don't work out well for the elephant. In rewriting the story, I may just teach the elephant a lesson about greed instead of doing him in.

There is also the unique factor missing. My style of borders and intersecting lines that works so well in my watercolors is not yet injected. Will it be too busy in the Quilted Media look? Guess it won't hurt to try.

The Elephant and the Turtle

2010-08-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Starting a new illustration to show at the WTOH conference in September. I want to do a step by step of my new media. This is an African folktale about a Turtle tricking an elephant. In this scene, turtle is enticing elephant with a succulent plant.

I started with a small sketch on a post it to get a quick layout. I scanned the post it, and enlarged it, then redrew it and added the trees and the background, adding detail that I could not get in the small doodle.

Adding a new style to my repetiore

2010-08-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

This summer we went to Idaho and spent time with my 93 year old parents. My mom creates these amazing quilts. Last year at our family reunion we all drew on pieces of material; our names, cute pictures.. Over the last 12 months, Mom and some other family members embroidered and sewed that quilt. I was so inspired that I came home and wanted to start quilting. Not being ready to actually pull out the sewing machine, I decided to see what I could come up with digitally.