Discovering our style - Who's in?

[NicolaSchofield]

@LauraA lots of variety in your dream images as you say. The word that keeps coming to mind for them as a whole group is soft. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that but somehow the images generally feel soft / calm / gentle. This is through the subject matter and composition (often figures looking away from the viewer - contemplative) but also through subtle texture, line work and blurring of objects / figures into each other though the same techniques and use of similar colours.

I see a lot of this in your Instagram images but not all - you have a mixture of soft and bold styles.

[NicolaSchofield]

@LauraA In the end I think I got rid of the few images I liked but that looked out of place in the group. I will have to redo this exercise treating each image individually rather than in context with the whole portfolio. For now I am happy though and yes the pink / blue was a bit of a surprise because I generally don't like that combo. I need to do a master copy or two to really analyse it!

[NicolaSchofield]

Yes, I gathered all the images at the same time - it's just split in two for ease of posting here. I think I'm now going to do a few master copies to get a better feel for the colours. There are a couple of images that I really don't want to copy. I'm thinking I should remove these from the portfolio for that reason and replace them...

@bugeyefly said in Discovering our style - Who's in?:

@neschof Did you assemble the two boards at the same time? The second group feels much more of a piece to me than the first one. There are three in there at least that make use of the same complementary colour approach (blue-orange) for their mood. The range and depth of colour is greater in the first group and I can't see a pattern in the colours there.

[NicolaSchofield]

Yes I see what you mean about Matisse!

Playful is definitely a word I would aspire to someone say about my portfolio so that's a good direction I'm headed

@chrisaakins said in Discovering our style - Who's in?:

@neschof I love your dream portfolio. I see a whole lot of lines used as texture and pattern and a lot of expressive movement. Your dream portfolio reminds me a lot of Matisse's work and has a playful feel to it.

[NicolaSchofield]

@Zachary-Drenski Your dream portfolio is lovely and definitely a coherent set to send you off in a specific direction. When picking my images I also tried to only include one image per artist. I didn't stick to images from picture books but I only included images that I could imagine being included in a picture book. Some of my images are not exactly the perfect image that I love but are more just a sample of an artist where I like everything they do.

I decided to not overthink it and getting something generally good together was better than striving for perfection and not actually making progress.

[LauraA]

@neschof I understand! I felt mine were incoherent as well and that's why I made four boards--each group had something in common but it was hard to find sense in the whole. I trust that in the end there is a good reason for all of our choices and I hope your master copies provide you the insight you are looking for.

[LauraA]

@Zachary-Drenski Yes, I do like Aaron Becker's work! I love his sense of lighting, color, landscape and invention. I don't like his figures as much, which is probably why he didn't make the final cut. But I saw a portrait he posted on Instagram, and--wow!

I'm touched that you got the word "tenderness" out of my selections, and I hope that it's something I can eventually convey in my work. I do believe tenderness is something I try to convey both in my work and in real life. It's awfully underrated these days!

@neschof I think that's interesting that you noticed that all the figures are looking away from the viewer. It wasn't a conscious choice, but I looked, and there it is! I like "contemplative" as a description as well. I also like mischievous characters, but more the type of mischief that simply results from imagination and exuberance. I am aware of the texture choices, but can you give me an example of blurring so that I can see what you mean? Thanks!

[eriberart]

This is a great excercise! My dream portfolio is a work in progress but these are some pieces from artists I really admire at the minute. I'd love to hear anyones thoughts.

Artists: Briony May Smith, Emily Hughes, Alice McKinley, Laurie Stansfield, Becky Cameron, Fiona Woodcock, Cindy Wume, Katie Hickey, Miyazaki, Lee Komako Sakai, Eve Coy, Robyn Owen Wilson, Shirley Hughes

[NicolaSchofield]

I think blurring was maybe a poor choice of word by me. I meant that objects/backgrounds next to each other often have similar colours and textures - it seems purposeful to make you look closer at the images and gives them a slight dream like quality - like the objects are made of smoke and you can't quite hold onto them. Of course it could also just be that these images are quite small, I'm reading too much into them and the full size versions would not have this effect

@LauraA said in Discovering our style - Who's in?:

@neschof I think that's interesting that you noticed that all the figures are looking away from the viewer. It wasn't a conscious choice, but I looked, and there it is! I like "contemplative" as a description as well. I also like mischievous characters, but more the type of mischief that simply results from imagination and exuberance. I am aware of the texture choices, but can you give me an example of blurring so that I can see what you mean? Thanks!

[NicolaSchofield]

@eriberart The words that instantly came to mind as I saw the images were fun, whimsical, light, airy, carefree. Generally light colours applied sparingly. And they all feature young children drawn in a similar way - similar proportions / silhouette.

[LauraA]

@neschof No, you didn't make a mistake. I got what you meant more or less, but just wondered what specific examples you were thinking of. I think the de-emphasis of background objects is purposeful, or at least it's a technique portraitists learn in order to draw attention to the subject. Sargent was quite a master of it!

[eriberart]

@neschof Thank you for your reply! I think the things I can dissect are:
Energetic linework
Pencil and brush textures
A focus on character (in particular children and their expressions and interactions)
In general softer colours, maybe with one brighter accent colour

I think for my work personally, I love drawing characters but I need to focus more on their environments and improve on my backgrounds! I also want to work on my colour palettes. I tend to work digitally (with the line art done traditionally and scanned in) but a lot of the work I like has a traditional feel so I want to work on making my digital colouring feel more traditional.

[Miriam]

@neschof , I don’t know if it’s of any help, but I was thinking later that the pink color is similar to Magenta in CMYK.
Yes, I think most of us are in the “illustrating people is a weak point” boat! People are hard to get right!

[Miriam]

@neschof & @LauraA , maybe “blended” & “subtle”?

[Miriam]

@eriberart , Have you seen Lee White’s YouTube video on texture? It may be helpful to you in achieving a traditional look to your digital painting.

[NicolaSchofield]

Yes, I think I had in mind the effect you see in a lot of Rembrandt paintings where there is no clear border / edge between people/objects and backgrounds. They just flow into one another, mostly through shadows, but in @LauraA 's portfolio I think also through texture and hatching. Though maybe it's just an artefact of the small images.

@Miriam said in Discovering our style - Who's in?:

@neschof & @LauraA , maybe “blended” & “subtle”?

[nkdrawings]

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[nkdrawings]

Mine is still in progress, but here's a sampling I have so far. Some things I've noticed: inky linework, "blotchy" watercolor (by which I suppose I mean that wet-on-wet effect), limited color palettes, and quirky/whimsical character design. I'd love any other observations (and am open to suggestions of other illustrators or pieces).

Artists featured here: Gris Grimly, Quentin Blake, Aurelie Blard-Quintard, Manka Kasha, Lee White, Lucia Stewart

[StudioLooong]

I'm going to jump in on this! @eriberart I liked looking at your board because we pulled a few similar images/artists. Similarities that I am identifying with my board's images are:

• Light, earthy, warm color schemes and lots of warm neutrals

• Use of color is relatively flat but still has a little dimension implied

• expressive use of line with a lot of energy

• the drawing shows through (not painted over)

• texture and detail are implied with mark-making but not realistically rendered

• Characters all have strong shapes and expressions

I'd be interested to see what other people think. Right off the bat, looking at my work and looking at my dream board I see that I need to lighten and warm up my colors and push my line work to be more expressive. I think I should be a little less tight with my executions, focusing less on trying to model light and shadow and more on playing with shape, expression and texture.

[eriberart]

@Miriam I don't think I have, I will have to check it out!

@StudioLooong Nice! I don't think I have much more to add to your analysis, but I do notice that there seem to be a lot more animal characters in your dream portfolio while in your own work there is more of a focus on human characters!
I really like your 'Ten in the Bed' piece. I think the linework is great and feels energetic and close to the vibe I get from your dream portfolio Your style of colouring feels more rendered and darker than your dream portfolio, it would be interesting to see you maybe try some watercolour style brushes under your line art. I think this would help give the traditional and loose feel that Emily Hughes, Freya Hartas etc have in their work.