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Tuesday was a better day and I got on with creating new brushes in Illustrator and reworking my babies illustration. Yesterday I didn't get much done as I was preparing for the art workshop I do in a primary school. Last week the children (6 year olds) were little terrors, so this week I was armed with sparkly stickers and a small prize for the best behaved child. We did some very simple origami models and then decorated them. The prize was this bird which I made at home. When you pull its tail, its wings flap. The little boy who won it seemed rather chuffed!
I feel in the origami mood now and will have to go out and get some nice Japanese paper.
I should've known today wasn't going to go well when I only managed 26 lengths at the pool this morning- usually I do 40!
I knew what I wanted to do today- re-working my babies illustration to add more depth and a stronger line- but it just didn't go according to plan. I spent forever trying to work out how to get a wobbly, hand-drawn line in Illustrator. The line I have used is not as bold as I'd like and looks a bit chalky. So I spent ages messing about with brushes and tried to create some of my own. Not as easy as it sounds! I posted a question on the AOI discussion board and, after a lot of help from a nice illustrator known as Frog, at 5:30pm I had finally worked out what to do...Very frustrating but I got there in the end. So this is all I've got to show for today. The line round the baby's face and the grey line round the pan are done in my new hand-drawn, bolder line and the rest is in the older, chalkier line. I've created several new brushes so that the lines don't all look exactly the same and hopefully it won't look too digital. I'm adding shadows and toning the cheeks down too. I'm quite pleased with my work so far(!)
I hope tomorrow is better.
It's the Leeds International Film Festival this week and I'm off to see about 5 films. I rarely go to the cinema all year and then go crazy and see as many as possible in 10 days! I'm looking forward to it but I'll probably have square eyes!
In The Guardian's Weekend magazine there's a weekly photography competition. They give you a theme to photograph and then you send in your photos. This is a photo taken last weekend for the theme 'Saturday night'. This really was my Saturday night which is quite embarassing but if it wins me a nice new camera then I don't mind.
I have been working on adding more depth to my work. Here is the same illustration, before and after the depth treatment! It's only after meeting my agent and having a long chat about my work that I realised there even was a lack of depth in my work. Sometimes you really can't see what's in front of you and it's definitely worth getting other people's opinions.
I've now illustrated a background for my mermaid and can't decide whether it is nice and simple or too bare. Sometimes when you spend hours staring at the same illustration it is very difficult to tell if it needs more wrk or if you should just stop. I'll post it up here and come back to it in a few days time.
