Sketch illustration-4 (of 5)

So much for sleep. haha! (140am) Here is my 4th installment of pencil sketch illustrations. Whew...I have to say it is nice to get back to Bristol board. By the end of the week I should have all 5 pencil illustrations complete.

sketch illustration-3 (of 5)

It seems that I am doing a pretty good job at staying on top of these pencil illustrations. So far I've made about one every other day.

This particular illustration was difficult because I decided to try it on a more affordable paper that I had a larger quantity of... (watercolor cold press 90 lb). The paper was crazy textured which didn't allow for the subtle shading I prefer, it really didn't want to accept the graphite as much and when it came to erasing it would just smear. So fail on this type of paper. I did what I could with the illustration. hope you enjoy! ^_^

Sketch illustration-2 (of 5)

So there you have it. I ended up doing a full blown and somewhat complicated illustration. I had been batting this idea in my head for a few weeks, in fact it was supposed to be illustration #3 for my summer project. I completed this pencil drawing in less a day.

I don't know if anymore of the 5 will be this complicated, but honestly it was quite easy to do! (easier than my old methods). Staring out light and working in pencil by progressively getting darker allows for more change than I ever thought possible (or maybe it is just the bristol board.) Plus working in pencil (or most dry media) is second nature to me.

Sketch illustration-1 (of 5)

My initial plan was to do a quick pencil line drawing on bristol board so that I could do a greyscale oil painting, scan it and then convert to color...however as i started to lay down the shading with my .9 mechanical pencil I kept rendering, and rendering and rendering. Before I knew it the oil paints sounded less and less interesting.

I am such a practical persons and find it hard to sketch or make finished sketches of things that are not going to become a full rendered-colored illustration. So over the next week or so (instead of my third illustration) I will complete a total of 4 more penciled illustrations. They will be simple, exploring and fun at the same time.

Following after my initial idea for the illustration above, after I have completed the five pencil drawings I will then pick one of them and make an color illustration of it. Perhaps I will continue this process for the rest of the summer! It is fun to complete many ideas in a highly rendered fashion in the time it takes me to complete one. Plus by having a full value pencil drawing it makes for a good start as an underpainting.

Illustration contest & webpage UPDATE!

Update #1:

This is an old illustration from last semester that I touched up this week.

I was informed by my fellow illustrator Jeff Porter about a contest that was being held at the ArtOrder. I had three days to complete this illustration. I did it and it was exhausting. I have since learned that three days is a "Comfortable" time period to complete an illustration in the real freelance world. 0_O Well anyway I did not win anything in the contest, but it was a great opportunity. I also have made many adjustments since I finished it for the contest (so it no longer qualifies as being done in three days..haha) It is still not perfect in my opinion and I will continue to tinker till I get it right.

Update #2:

I have overhauled the gallery on my portfolio website and some of the images will even be different then last viewed here on the blog so go take a look:

http://www.jerbl.com/monisawa/

Illustration 2 - Veteran's club

I was asked by the Veteran's Club at MCC Longview to make a poster that would promote their existence and purpose. They wanted a poster that was similar to the old WW II posters. They also wanted the poster to have vibrant colors. Eventually I will include text around the figure (hence the huge open space around uncle sam).

Well that is that! I've finally found what I have been looking for. A style and technique that not only looks "finished", but leaves infinite possibilities and personal interest for future illustrations.

I think the first key is that I need to work on smaller/simpler illustrations first...before I tackle on the epic subjects (hence my first summer illustration...which has great modeling, but it is very clunky.)

The second key is working the illustration as if it was an acrylic painting. (see Greg newbolds post 1, post 2 for a visual...which btw I won a book from him this past week in honor of his blog being online a year!) I spent most of my time looking for the answer in digital artists. My big break came when I started looking more earnestly in traditional media and applying their approach in photoshop. I spent most of my time studying and doing masterstudies in acrylic illustrations, and oil paintings ranging from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's (might post some of em later if requested).

In regards to uncle sam I built a Maquette out of Super Sculpey. I based it off several of the posters I found online and my own exaggerations. The maquette was nice for visual and shading purposes, but it was not the end of all ends. I allowed the illustration and character to evolve as the illustration progressed.

Detail of illustration at 50% of actual size:

Illustration 1 - Cat-astrophe!

"The cat managed to fit his mind control unit on a human and quickly went to work doing important matters!"

My intention for this was to be a full spread as if from a children's book. The idea for the concept came to me while driving home one day and a bird flew right past my windshield. Ideas rarely come clear, forceful, and funny all at once, but this was one of them.

This illustration ended up taking a little under two weeks to complete. It was fairly complex and one of those, "is it done yet?...how about now?...is it ever going to get done!!!" illustrations. Make sure to click and look at the image closer since it has a lot of beautiful painterly texture.

I am behind in attempting 12 complete illustrations this summer mostly because I spent so much time exploring painting methods and brushes in photoshop....but thats ok with me. Progress is progress...and this is some of my best work. I am open for suggestions and critiques on this piece! Please give me input.