Identifying tools and materials

I used the Association of illustrators web site to access a range of artists and their work from which to make my selection. It threw up one issue, although most illustrators describe the medium that they use, the method of use is not generally described. Particularly in respect of combinations of materials used in specific pieces.

 All that aside and contrary to my preference to avoid digital processes, the four illustrators I have chosen all use a digital process as some part of the final image. This was not a conscious decision on my part as I made the selection based on thumbnails of the illustrator's work.
However the combination of traditional  and digital methods is very appealing.

The four illustrators  I have chosen are:

Darren Hopes.

Darren mixes pencil and other medium, acrylic painting and photography to compose digital montage in Photoshop

He  varies the amount of each type of origination depending on subject.

Carly Allen-Fletcher.

Carly mixes physically drawn and painted pictures with digital colouring and graphic techniques. Contrasting clean edge

digital graphics against her own style of drawing and painting.

Lee Woodgate and Claire Nichols.

Both Lee and Claire create illustrations that have a printmaking quality to them, multi layered images

made up from simple photographic images and hand created textures and marks. Lee favours graphics and symbols in addition to monotone photographic images.

Lee's dramatic interplay of contrasting images and colour seem to contain a whole story in themself. Claire's less stark effects carry no less weight and encapsulate a deep sense of the subject. they both use graphics and symbolism to good effect.

This is my rendition of  my Brazzaville Beach book jacket from a previous exercise,  in the method of Lee Woodgate or Claire Nichols borrowing from both techniques ...hopefully.

Following the method of the artists I have chosen, I have taken a photograph on my iPad of the beach not 50 meters from the holiday let where I am am staying this week. I have manipulated the image and added text in an app called Aviary and used this as the first layer in my composition.

I did a quick sketch from a figure in a magazine and in Procreate adjusted its luminosity which changes its opacity also using the eraser tool on this layer renders the erased section transparent. I did like wise with the chimp image. There are some additional colouration layers added for effect. Not having access to Photoshop at present, the whole image has been put together in Procreate.

For my additional example of an illustration created by this method; I have taken as a brief to illustrate the town I am on holiday in. My initial idea as a thumbnail was fairly simple in design. And designed to incorporate photography and an element physically created, preferably pencil.

I had already started a sketch of part of the port architecture..

But dropped this idea in favour of a sketch of the local church.

Equipped with iPad I went into town to take some photographs of the church to sketch from and any other likely scenes where I thought there might be potential.

 

My sketch of the church

 

whilst drawing I considered its position in the design as a guide to how much of the scene I needed to complete.

A lot of the building is obscured by trees so I have included the main door to added scale whilst bearing in mind that aspects may be faded or covered by other elements.

By way of other content I had photographed a shuttered window, an image of the sea with some boats, the street sign of the Ruelle our rented property is in and a beach scene. I also intend to include a cycle in some form or other.

Next came a lot of experimentation with positioning, layers and effects. I also made a sketch of a cycle to include, having tried to use a digital paint version which didn't work out.

It was also a bit of a learning curve in the use of the two apps that I used to put it together. It is certainly not a case of slapping a few things on a screen and made me appreciate the vision and skill you have to have to produce a design that works.

Here is my finished design, luckily it only has to convey a sense of an understanding of the techniques involved.

My last additions modifications were to included a stone wall and I hand wrote the town name.

I had previously sketched the wall..

But for better overal balance elected to use a photograph instead.

 

Final thought

When I looked again at the professional artists work and compare to my effort, I could see a sense of hierarchy in their illustrations, which is something that in this particular exercise, I didn't really give any real consideration to; going for overall effect rather than stressing most to least important elements.