My Inspired work in progress (Zoe Persico)

[baileyvidler]

@Heather-Boyd This is awesome! I really love the story you've got. Your composition is solid. I feel like it's important to see the girl's concerned expression. 3/4 view would probably work. Zoe seems to do that POV frequently. (see below.)

Or, what if you have the sheep in the foreground, the girl is placed in the middle-ground, and the storm clouds in the background? She could be looking concerned at the sheep and pointing to the clouds? "Hey, Sheep! See those clouds? We should get out of here!"

Really excited to see how this piece comes along! I definitely want to hear your thoughts when you get to the rendering phase. I love Zoe's brush strokes so much, and I couldn't quite figure out how to crack that technique. I did a master study once. I'll have to check if I still have it in my back-up drive. If so, I'll share it here.

Looking forward to seeing your progress!

[Heather Boyd]

@baileymvidler Yes I thought of the girl in the field but I prefer the openness of the field left to the sheep, but thank you that would solve the predicament as well. Thank you also for sharing with me Zoe's 3/4 view that is very helpful! I have a rough idea how I will solve it with an story element that ties everything together (sort of what you were saying about the sheep). The rendering will be a few experiments for sure and I will look for feedback.

[A Former User]

@Heather-Boyd Go with your favorite! We can help you make sure her body language communicates so that you don't need to see her face.

[Coley]

This is a fun thread. will be watching! I hadn’t heard of Zoe perisco so I looked her up, her work is amazing !

[Heather Boyd]

@carolinebautista my solution does have her face, but I will seek help for her gesture too, thanks.

[Heather Boyd]

Monday and I am back. I found my eye line and drew in my Scottish house as best I could and shaped my sheep a bit more roughly for perspective angle purposes (plus the additional one). My question is whether the house is too large or too small for the location it is in and as well the size of the sheep in comparison to the house and to the general size of the yet to be drawn girl (I will look at tomorrow)? Also the raised mound in the front on the farthest right side does that need to be in perspective like the protruding left side and if so how (it is very front facing)?

I appreciate you helping me out as you already kindly have,
Thanks,

[A Former User]

@Heather-Boyd The house seems much too big, but I'm not sure why except that making it smaller would make the landscape look vast. It might be better flipped horizontally, so that the door faces the center of the drawing. I think the mound in the front can be that shape, it's so much in the foreground that you can make any shape work. The shape you have might work better compositionally if the edge gently moves to the bottom of the frame and the other edge slopes up more, depending on how high up she is.

The size of the sheep compared to her tell me she is not very high, is that right?

[Heather Boyd]

@carolinebautista

Thank you, this is what I need. I am at a point where I want feedback questioning my thinking in order for my work to clearly and creatively tell the story I want to tell.

All your points are good - my character is less made up. I need to decide how much detail I want to add to her, especially in her face -partly determining how big she will be.

I will adjust the house size for sure -I certainly want to create a vast expanse with what I have started with. I will consider flipping it.

[Heather Boyd]

So update with feedback corrections, character beginnings and gesture. This week has not gone as planned so I am 3 days behind but this is what I have to update you with. Let me know what gestures you like or have any further suggestions/corrections. As I got more into her gesture, I had more fun.

[Heather Boyd]

I've decided to keep my character's gesture simple because her environment is more turmoil. I am working on value study and then figure out how to ensure my colours line up with the value study.

I haven't drawn these clouds in this style for awhile but it works well with the movement in Zoe's work. Just need to move it from pencil to pastel.

[Heather Boyd]

@KajsaH @Dima-Eichhorn @baileymvidler @carolinebautista @Coley

So I finished but I am not overly pleased with it but I am glad to have it finished not perfect. I underestimated my frustration with pastel beyond it's messiness. I had more colour choice with soft pastels but didn't have the control I have with the pastel pencils. So I liked the composition part most on this one. I do like how I did the mountain/hills, the wave in the grass and I liked my character draw but not the final. I improved better in my values. So it's good learning but I miss my white paper/space. One of those 100 try outs.

Thanks for all your support and help,

Do you guys know other children book illustrators that use white space?! ALSO children book illustrators that draw pencil overtop of colour? I seem to gravitate that way naturally.

[Coley]

@Heather-Boyd the yellow with the purple is quite nice too! The sheep are super cute

I think prefer the character draw a little more too. But not a whole lot! It’s really hard to maintain the initial drawing, my characters change so much too.

I think micheal martchenko sometimes uses a bunch of white space? He’s one of my original inspirations. And he’s all traditional. But watercolor over pencil, I think

[Heather Boyd]

@Coley Thank you I'll got look that illustrator up.

[baileyvidler]

@Heather-Boyd Yay! I'm so happy to see the finished piece! I like the vibrant yellow you used for the field. It nicely contrasts the dark storm clouds! Thanks for sharing your progress.

As for white space... I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but I think Blythe Russo very effectively uses white in her images. It makes them feel all nice and airy.

[A Former User]

@Heather-Boyd it's beautiful! what size is it? soft pastels are the most irritating things to work with!

Are you thinking about the style of your hot chocolate piece? what did you use for that one?

[Heather Boyd]

@carolinebautista thank you. The work is 8 by 10, I try to keep to that. I may work larger and then photograph and shrink digitally.

Here I thought watercolour was harder lols.

The hot chocolate work was digital but it was a combination of gouache and some sort of crayon or pastel on top. No I was not thinking about that style -that work was far realistic.

Thanks

[Heather Boyd]

@baileymvidler Thank you -I was thinking more like how watercolourists use the paper as their white. More practice with that with or without the watercolour part.