MY ILLUSTRATION PROCESS

I thought I'd show you the steps I took for my newest illustration.

Step 1: Coming up with an idea. First, I try to think of a story. My stories are influenced very much by what's going on around me. What season is it? What are kids doing during this time of year? The subject matter I chose for this painting is swimming. Once I think of a subject matter, I imagine different ages of children and the feelings and thoughts that may surround the subject matter pertaining to that certain age. I then, decide which age, feelings and thoughts I want to focus on. For this painting, Swimming Lessons, I chose a young girl, age of three. My thinking was that a child this age may be afraid of water (which was NOT true for my model. :) I don't think she had even an ounce!).  Of course, the story ends with her taking swimming lessons, learning to love the water and concludes with a joyful pool party with all her friends.

Step 2: I draw some thumbnail sketches. Thumbnail sketches are just that- sketches the size of a thumb. I draw them about 2.5" tall and I draw several. I drew her in different aspects of the story until I decided which part of the story I wanted to focus on. Here's some of my thumbs.

Step 3: After I've decided on which direction to go, I find my model and take TONS of pictures. Here's a couple I used for reference in my painting. I used a facial expression from one, the body pose from another, and the snorkel from another.

Step 4: Once I have my reference, I start on my final drawing. I work out values during this process.

Step 5: After I feel comfortable with my drawing, I paint a small color study. This color study is roughly 10 inches tall. I then, scan it into my computer and mess around with it a bit. I may experiment with different versions in Photoshop.

The first is the original color study. The other two are manipulations in Photoshop.

Step 6: Finally, I get to start the actual painting! Most of the brain work is now done! This is the part of the process I like best. The final painting, Swimming Lessons, is 18"x24" painted on an ABS panel. I adopted William Whitaker's painting substrate. He loves this kind of board. I don't think he paints on anything else, anymore.

Here's the final:

INNOCENCE

It's been over a year since the horrible tragedy of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I remember watching the news about this event and feeling shocked, appalled, and tremendously sick to my stomach. Tears rolled down my face. "How could a person do such a horrendous act?", I asked myself. Over the next several weeks, while reflecting on this abominable event, it came clear to me that childhood innocence is under attack. Such sorrow filled my heart and still weighs heavy on my soul. My childhood had its bumps and I received many bruises but nothing like what children face today. Terrorism, abuse, neglect, sickness, violence, poverty, and war are real and shatter the innocence that should be cherished and protected as far as is humanly possible.

Just a few months later, the bombing at the Boston Marathon rang throughout the world. This marathon was to be a healing event for the families of Sandy Hook Elementary. It was dedicated to these children and adults who had lost their lives during that awful occurrence. Family members of Sandy Hook were invited to attend. Special seating was given to these honored individuals. But instead of it being a moment for therapeutic relief it became a weapon for devastating pain and heartbreak which re-opened and aggravated their tender wounds. I cried again while watching this news.

I had already painted a few children before these ghastly incidents had occurred, but not really with a specific purpose or meaning. I have always enjoyed children's love and passion for life and I like seeing the light that shines from their inner spirit. I wanted to capture that light, so I painted some children. It was right before the bombing that I decided that I wanted to paint more children and this time for the specific purpose of capturing their innocence on canvas. I decided to support my paintings with a story. I would immerse myself within a childlike quality, such as determination, resilience, imagination, and curiosity, and then write a story that would support that trait. My painting would then emerge from a scene based off of that story.

 I have now completed nine paintings. I have four more in the works and plan on continuing to paint even more as stories continue to fill my mind. These paintings are dedicated to childhood innocence and honor those children who have lost their innocence through no fault of their own. My heart goes out to them, their families, and to the communities that are affected by such appalling acts.

Below you can view four of my recent works.

MY NEXT PROJECTS:

I thought I'd share with you my next two painting projects. I'm excited to get working on them. I'll be working back and forth on both to save me some time. Since these will be painted in oils, I will always have something to work on while waiting for drying time on one or the other. The final pieces will be 18"x24".

I may do some minor tweaking with the sketch of the girl and cat. I'll probably add a necklace to the both of them. I think it just needs a little more.

Hope you like them!

 THANK YOU!!!

Well, I went and did it! I submitted my work, for the first time EVER, to a professional and prestigious illustration competition! I can't believe I did it! I was shaking like a leaf on a tree as I sized my photos to their specific dimensions and filled out the forms on line. I have to say thank you to so many of you for your encouragement and compliments. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have even thought about it. Many of you have so many wonderful things to say about my illustrations but to me, well, my work still needs work. I don't really and truly believe I'll be accepted into their magazine, but I accomplished something I haven't accomplished before and I believe the next time I submit work, 1. It will be better work, and 2. I won't be so freaked out about it! It's probably best that I now forget I even submitted the work so I won't add more stress onto my plate over the next few months. School adds plenty of stress enough, thank you. No more is needed.

Thank you again! Here are a couple of the pieces I submitted.

IT BEGINS WITH A STORY

Someone asked me if the painting from my last post was for a story. Well, yes it is, but probably not a story that any of you know of. You see, I actually make up a story before I even decide what to paint. Let me explain this further by sharing, with a little bit more depth, my current method of choosing what I paint and how I go about it.

The first thing I do is think of a story. It isn't as hard as you may think. I open my mind to the world of children. What do they like to do, what do I see them doing, and when do I see the most excitement or passion coming from their hearts? Sometimes I focus the story around the season we are presently in, but that's not always the case. Sometimes, I decide if I want a girl for my main character or if I want a boy, but that's not always the case either.  I don't force the story. I go to bed while thinking of children and then let my mind do its thing. Basically, I fall asleep telling myself a story. Don't get me wrong. It's not a detailed story but the basics are there. I'll dream of different pages of the story. What the character will be doing, his/her expression, attitude, and the direction I want to go, will start becoming clear. I'll write down just bits and pieces of the story. At this point in time of my life, I'm not trying to write a full blown finished and publishable story. My only desire at this time, is to try to capture the essence of the story with a single illustration.

After I have the story figured out, I decide what the page layout will be. Will it be tall (portrait), wide (landscape), or square? I try to commit to a tradition book dimension. I then start on the thumbnail sketches. These sketches are only just a little larger than 1 inch by 2 inches and are very loose. They are very similar to scribbles.  No reference material is used at this time. During this process, I refer to my notes of the story. I'm not trying to illustrate the whole book. My goal is to capture a moment in time- that one precise second or moment that defines and clarifies the character and the story. You could think of it as if I'm illustrating the book cover. Now, I don't do a ton of thumbnails. I've heard of some artists that will sketch out 80 ideas just for one painting. That's not me. If I get out 20 ideas then I'm more than happy with myself. While I'm sketching, I'm thinking about the age of the child, his or her hair color, and the mood I want to achieve. I may have different versions to one idea. I may try a different perspective or maybe cropping it or pushing it back in space. It is important, during this time, to keep in mind the time frame I'm working with. The more characters I have in my illustration the more time it will take to finish.

Once I figure out what I want to paint, then it's time to find my reference material. I start my search for my model/s, props, and location. Once I've accomplished finding everything and everyone on my list then it's time for a photo shoot. I take photos of the models separately and then together. The props too. I keep my thumbnail sketch in my hands or on the ground next to me so that I can refer to it often. I want to have the same posture, positioning, pose, perspective, and emotion in my photos as to what I have in my thumbnail sketch. I take a TON of pictures and I mean a TON! And sometime, after I look on my computer at what I've shot, I realize I need more! There's so much that needs to be just right- lighting, expressions, perspective, etc.

After I've gathered my reference material, I then return to the drawing board. I rely constantly on my reference material now. I tighten up my thumbnail sketch by referring to my photos. The finished drawing will be quite tight and quite detailed. It will be fairly close to being exactly what I paint. It seems there is always something I change while I'm actually  painting it. I'll do a value study based on this drawing as well. It will give me a map of where the lights and darks will be in my painting. Once I'm satisfied with my drawing, I enlarge it to fit my board, transfer it onto my board, seal the drawing, and then I'm ready to go.

Whew! Finally, the painting (and the fun) begins!

Wow! Christmas is upon us! How did it get here so quickly? It's always amazing to me how fast the time starts to fly after Halloween!  It must be that during the school terms I seem to have blinders on.  It seems I see nothing else but school projects! Well now the term is over and I have a few weeks to recoup and focus on the things I've neglected over the past few months. During these next few weeks, I'm hoping to get some of my current paintings posted. Since the mother of this little boy wanted a print for her husband for Christmas and I have this one already photographed, I'm starting with this one. I hope you like it!

HEAD PAINTING IN OILS

 I just finished up with a head painting class I took over the first summer block with Peter Sakievich (good guy and VERY talented) and I thought I would share with you the method in which he taught the class.  I enjoyed the class very much and I liked how he eased us into using multiple colors and felt it wasn't overwhelming at all in this way. I would highly recommend this method to any of you who would like to try painting portraits.

Peter had us use Canson Canva paper for all of our assignments in and out of class. We were to put 2-3 coats of shellac on the paper so that the oils wouldn't sink in but lay on top instead. He assigned us homework which typically consisted of four 1 hour paintings per week. For those that know me, you know that I don't know what an hour is so my homework assignments that I will post will be roughly around three hours or so. I never really timed them. I started painting and thought to myself "okay just one hour Cyndi" but then I became immersed in the painting and, well, all the time restraints went out the window. I think Peter chose the 1 hour time mark because he wanted us to get a feel of the oils and he wanted to see how we laid down the colors. The paintings weren't supposed to be a finished piece of art but just the beginnings. Most of my images I will post will be my homework assignments because I find them more interesting than a non emotive face staring at a blank wall. I will however, post some of the live portraits of the models we used.

"wipe out" method

The first method we were taught was the "wipe out" method (samples above). We were to use just one dark color. I chose burnt umber, others used raw umber or asphaltum. All we were to do was to paint in the darks and wipe out the lights with a rag or shop towel. Not to difficult at all. The trick is to pay attention to the different tones that one sees.

After we worked on this method for a week we moved on to using two colors. (Shown below)

"two color" method

With this method we were to use white and raw umber. White is to be mostly used on the lighted side of the face. By keeping to this technique, the shadows stay dark and there will be a cleaner delineation between the lights and the darks.


Then we moved on to three colors (below).
 

three colors

The three colors Peter required of us to use were Transparent Red Oxide, Blue Black or Cold Black and of course, White. That's it! I was amazed in what I could do with just three colors! Transparent Red Oxide is more of an orangy red so it was quite easy to get some flesh tones. I just cooled it down with some of the Blue Black. Even the blue you see in the background is just the Blue Black mixed with white. I found it quite amazing!!! 

Everything fell apart when we went to four colors. Just by adding a yellow to the mix caused me considerable struggles and frustrations. Luckily, I wasn't the only one who had a hard time with the four colors. The rest of the class was struggling as well so Peter left us on this pallet for several weeks. Thank goodness!!!

four colors

The four colors I used in the above paintings were again, Blue Black, and White, but Peter changed our red from Transparent Red Oxide to Venetian Red and the yellow that was added was Yellow Ochre. Be careful with the Venetian Red. This color is very powerful. It will take over your painting if you're not careful. As you can see in the little baby girl, I lost control of it. The girl is quite red. Oh well. The trick with this potent red is to start with Yellow Ochre and then add a small (and I mean small) amount of the Venetian Red to it. Your mixture will then need to be cooled down with some Blue Black. Or you can make a very dull green with Yellow Ochre and Blue Black and then this can be used to cool down the other mixture. I've tried both. Just for some more info, the Venetian Red and the Blue Black can also be mixed to give you a very dull purple. Peter called these colors the "dead palette". They are very earthy and dull.

After several weeks with this pallet, Peter suggested we try adding in some bright colors as well. He suggested Indian Yellow or Cadmium Yellow,  Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue, and Cadmium Red or Perylene Red. I tied some Cad Yellow in some of my paintings and then some Indian Yellow in others. I added Ultramarine Blue to my pallet and have yet to try the Cobalt Blue. I leaned more toward the Perylene Red instead of the Cad Red, but I liked them both. The paintings below include the "dead pallet" colors with a few of the brights.

"dead pallet" with some brights

It wasn't as hard to include multiple colors to my pallet than it was to jump from three colors to four. I wonder why that is. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm now including some of the paintings I worked on in class from the live models. The first one is just a three color pallet. The rest have multiple colors. Do any of you recognize any of them? One is actually a student. The model didn't show that day so we had someone from our class sit for us. Thanks Frankie!!!

I didn't get as far on Frankie as I had hoped. We started late because of the lack of model and I believe that day we were required to show Peter some of our work or maybe I was just having a slow day. One or the other. Idk. 


For our final, we were required to paint another self portrait. Our first self portrait for the class was done in the beginning when we were just using the wipe out method, but for this self portrait we were to paint two images of us using just a mirror (not photos) showing two sides of our personality. We could use as many colors as we wanted. Below is my final. The left image shows my expression to Peter as he tells us we have more homework and the right image shows my expression after leaving my last class at the beginning of summer break. Ahhhhhhh!!!!

self portrait

And that was the end of the class!!! It was a great class and I feel I learned quite a lot. Of course I still have more to learn but I feel I got a great start. Thanks Peter!!!