Creative Composition final projects

kirsten-mcg

I'm just finishing up @Will-Terry ’s creative composition class. As usual, I went into this one thinking "I already know most of this, but it will be a good refresher course," but I actually came away learning a lot of stuff I DIDN’T already know! I thought I would share my final projects with all of you.

This first one was a black & white master study. I picked Mary GrandPre1 because I've always been inspired by her work. This is a full page spread from a picture book she illustrated called "The Wee Hours.” its one of my favorites!

This is my copy.

The original.

I challenged myself to draw it freehand with no tracing, so I’m pretty proud of how close it turned out! I used mostly charcoal and graphite brushes in Procreate to mimic the texture of the pastels Mary GrandPre used in the original illustration.

Mewie

@kirsten-mcg This is so magical. I love it! Congrats

ArtistErin

@kirsten-mcg WOW... Great job! Impressive use of the tools, your ability to recreate it is phenomenal. I had to keep going back to your copy and found myself thinking this looks so much like the original and I know it's not! Superb This inspires me to do a master copy as well!

Chantal Goetheer

@kirsten-mcg wow it looks so good!!! Next to it being at creative composition it is a value study as well. I want to try more master studies.

kirsten-mcg

@Mewie Thank you! That magical element is what I love about Mary GrandPre's work.

kirsten-mcg

@ArtistErin Thanks Erin! I highly recommend the master copy. It was actually very relaxing not having to worry about story, composition, etc, and just doing my best to duplicate as closely as possible.

kirsten-mcg

@Chantal-Goetheer Yes! I felt like it really helped solidify for me what I learned about grouping values in the class.

kirsten-mcg

Working on the final assignment form Creative Composition. The prompt is “Quickly the little salamander scampered down the forest floor and hid from the squirrel!” The concept I’m playing with is a game of hide and seek. I added another character! Some very rough thumbnails and then a slightly more refined sketch.

kirsten-mcg

And a cleaned up value study. I think I’m going to watercolor this one.

Chantal Goetheer

@kirsten-mcg love the concept! How the salamander is holding it's giggles and mouse is urging to stay quiet. It makes it much like hide and seek. Im not quite sure where my eyes are drawn first based upon your value study. It seems a bit busy? Right now the background trees take up (too much?) attention because of their thick lines I guess. Looking forward seeing this in colour!

ArtistErin

I love that you posted the initial stages of rough thumbnailing. I can see where you're going with your refined sketch, can't wait to see how it evolves!

Making a final illustration usually does take evolutionary turns from the initial thumbnail and it is refreshing to see how you take it from beginning all the way through to final work. Your sketch looks clear enough to me and thank you for sharing your process

Kim Rosenlof

@kirsten-mcg This is really cute and I love the hide-and-seek concept.

kirsten-mcg

@Chantal-Goetheer the background should be less busy when I paint it, because the thick lines will be gone. You’re right that I do need to pick a focal point though. Right now I can’t decide where I want the viewers eye to go first, the salamander, the mouse, or the squirrel.

ArtistErin

@kirsten-mcg I suppose the story would be intriguing, to understand why the salamander is giggling under his breath? And of course the mouse is trying to shush him, I'm just curious what the story might be?

I used to love playing hide and seek as a kid! The excitement of being found, watching someone looking around and being the one looking at this composition I wonder how you would describe this anticipation visually?

kirsten-mcg

@ArtistErin that excitement is what I’m trying to portray! Specifically I was thinking about how funny it was when the seeker walked right past and then went the wrong way. I’m not sure if there’s a better way to get that across though. .

ArtistErin

@kirsten-mcg lol yes!!! It takes such skill to "capture" the essence of something like this in one image. You almost need a few more maybe spots to show the progression? I would love to see how you draw the silly situation you just described! Just rolling over laughing here, cause I was JUST playing hide and seek, ha ha ha and I'm outing myself here, I guess I'm still a little kid, the anticipation was so great, when I found my boyfriend hiding in the pantry I almost jumped out of my skin when I opened that door.

kirsten-mcg

@ArtistErin haha that’s the best! Never grow up too much to play hide and seek. I play it with my toddler, only she usually ends up shouting out where she’s hiding as soon as I get done counting.

Anaid J.

Hey @kirsten-mcg great job here! I really loved your master study, it looks so similar to the original one! And also the values are on point, loved that!

With the composition, I like how you showed us the initial thumbnails so we can see how everything starts to develop. Something I have to do more of is thumbnails, because I always try to jump right into an illustration and then I end up hating what I did hahahaha. My only question is: are you planning on giving the salamander and the squirrel a lighter value than the darker ones in your big thumbnail?

Chantal Goetheer

@kirsten-mcg same here

kirsten-mcg

@Anaid-J I actually did a 2nd value study after the one I showed here, and yes they were both lighter. Now I’m starting to watercolor it though and the values I had planned on aren’t coming through yet. I might have to do digital value adjustments after I’m done.