This illustration is for the bottom half of the page that Santa (see previous post) sits on. As usual it was painted in Corel Painter after having drawn and inked it. I'm enjoying this book immensely, children's books are so much fun! I work in quite a few different styles, but i have to say that this kind of work seems to come out of me a lot easier than some of the other types of things I do.

STEP ONE The rough sketch was drawn straight into painter using the pencil option. It's very sjketchy but there's enough info for me to read it and paint over.

STEP THREE Details are added, tones are blocked in to help the form.

STEP FIVE Setails added to trees etc. Again , thinking form!form!form!

STEP SIX Moving to the back of the landscape here. adding detail and atmosphere to the background. Also moving through the image to add details and highlights throughout.

STEP SEVEN More tonal work.

I've been using Corel Painter for a couple of years now. I'm currently using PainterX, there are a few more thingies on it than it's predecessor. I've been doodling away at a project that's in the back of my mind in muy spare time and today, I wanted to have a play with Painter's inking pen functions. This is the before and after; from the drawing to the finished line art, for me, for digital media, it comes pretty close to the real thing.

STEP ONE Here's the reference I used for the image. Note, I turned the cottage around, just in case the owners ever saw it, I'm not sure if the M.I.L. got permission. I'll carry on as if she didn't.

STEP FIVE See the chalky look to the colour?I use the chalk option for ease of getting the colours down quickly.

STEP SIX Some details added and keeping a watchful eye on the tones at the same time.

I've been playing around with Painter's inking brushes for a little while and thought I'd post a few examples on here. I'm very much a traditionalist when it comes to inking my stuff, I've been using pen and ink in a professional capacity for about 15 years now, but I'm very open to new things. I'll post the drawings all together, see if you can guess which ones have been inked digitally and which ones are good old pen and ink.

(Answers at bottom of post...no peeking!)

1) Frank-(traditional media) 2)Owl-digital 3)Tree-Digital 4)Horse and rider-Traditional 5)treestump-digital

This is a recent sketch that I wanted to colour. I've been looking forward to doing some fantasy stuff for a while, so this is the first of (hopefully) a few new fantasy images. nothing overly serious, it took about five hours using my trusty photoshop and painter programs. I worked in a similar way to the step-by-step samples here in recent posts.

STAGE ONE

STAGE TWO

I've redrawn the sketch. This is enough detail for me to use. I layer it over the page template I've set up and position it on the page, allowing enough room for the text. (VERY IMPORTANT)

More of the same..... Note some tonal stuff happening.

STAGE SEVEN

The boy is on a star, so I gesture in the glow and approximate how it would look. Pure white would be boring, so i throw in a few colour for visual interest.
STAGE EIGHT

STAGE NINE

Note the green glaze over the boy's pajamas. It still shows the tonal work through the colour. I used the digital watercolour brush for this. He's got a handful of stardust, so i begin to paint in the sparkly dust on his hand. STAGE TEN

Here I begin to pick out highlights, the spots on his pajamas etc. I genrally use a dodge tool set on low (for ease of control). (I set most of my brushes when using the PC on a low opacity for this purpose...control))STAGE ELEVEN

AT this point, I'm moving through the whole image, tidying up this and that, not stopping anywhere in particular. Although it may appear to be a tightly-rendered image, my working practise is very loose, allowing me work the way I noramally would on a traditional surface. I admire people who work with 3D and vector programs, but the two I use, (PHOTOSHOP and PAINTER) allow me to be me. I think that's fairly important-don't you?
CLOSE UP

I had a bit of time to kill today and decided to have a play with photoshop. It's been pretty intense lately with illustration and I haven't done anything like this for a while and sometimes, it's just nice to do something different. This image is my attempt to portray how i see the 'Golden Age' of respect for the planet. When the people who dwelt on her actually lived in harmony with nature and were more in touch with the land. No Pagan or druid myself, I find myself empathising with them and deeply respect the way they not only commune with nature, but how many of them, even to this day can read nature. This understanding, to my mind, needs to be returned.

STAGE ONE... The Thumbnail sketch. This comes after reading the text and having a bit of an idea as to what needs to go into the image. I keep it really loose at this stage.
STAGE TWO.....The Preliminary sketch. This is the image I'll use to scan into the pc and paint over in photoshop and Painter. I work very much the way I would with a canvas or sheet of watercolour paper. I keep the layers down to a minimum for this reason. See how different the drawing is to the thumbnail... I change things at this stage, so I don't have to later. I was happy I knew what I was going to do with it. This was drawn by hand on cartridge paper and scanned in as an RGB image. the colour was tweaked to give me a coloured base to work on, rather like adding yellow to a sheet of watercolour paper to take the stark white away. It kinda looks like a weathered old piece of paper that Leonardo may have used eh?
I've been careful to leave space for the text in the left hand side, over the bottom of the bed.
STAGE THREE... I work on the background first. The space scene is blocked in and a hint of the elements are visible. I lay down flat washes of colour on the foreground at this stage using the digital watercolour brushes in painter. STAGE FOUR... Working on the tones and highlights. I also scratch away a little at the face. I've also added blue in the shadows, it gives it a 'cleaner' look, rather than just a boring, dirty tonal look. I find it gives it a 'lift'.

THE FINISHED ILLUSTRATION. See below for a close-up.

For the acrylic workshop, I have to do a floortalk on my processes and inspiration, so I thought I'd get prepared and try to break down the thing I do, generally without much conscious thought and try to articulate a step-by-step run through of the creation of an image. This illustration was produced for the book I'm currently working on, I've never actually completed any of the stories I've written and illustrated, but this one looks set to be a goer.