Project: 5
Digital Illustration
The Storm
43 cm x 38 cm Digital Art November 2018 The Storm heavily uses color to express mood and value of the artwork to create forms and textures. This is a narrative piece that symbolizes fear of the unknown through the frightened boy who is scared of the thunderstorm outside, going into his grandparent's room wearing his dad's boots afraid that it'll start raining in the house. The inspired artist is Don Wood; a children's book illustrator whose work in King Bidgood's in the Bathtub also includes color to convey the time and the mood.
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Critical Investigation Research:
While creating The Storm, I was inspired by the artwork of the children's book artist Don Wood who illustrates for books written by his wife Audrey Wood. Books by Don Wood include, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, Heckedy Peg, and The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry and the Big, Hungry Bear.
Don Wood was raised on a farm in California. He decided he wanted to be an artist when he was in 6th grade; His father wasn't certain about his decision at first but his brothers took over the family farm business. He attended the University of California at Saint Barbara where he met his wife, Audrey. When their son was born, Audrey Wood decided to start writing children books, so Don Wood decided to illustrate them. I was inspired to use of color to illustrate the time of day throughout the book, Kind Bidgood's in the Bathtub. Throughout the book, as the court tries to remove the king from his bath, the coloring changes in the room to show how the day is passing. More specifically, I liked how Wood created the art piece that takes place at night. He uses one color in very drastic values, having very bright values highlighting the people in the piece and very dark values for the windows and wall paper. I wanted to use the same style for the texture in my piece; Don Wood uses very smooth and realistic textures, no brushstrokes are seen. My piece includes a window and a similar perspective as When the night got dark. |
Wood, Don. "Don Wood." Scholastic, Scholastic, 2018, https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/authors/don-wood/
Wood, Don. "King Bidgood." The Modest Peacock, Jenny Ray, Blogger, August 14th, 2012, http://themodestpeacock.blogspot.com/2012/08/wood-don-king-bidgoods-in-bathtub-and.html
Wood, Don, "When the night got dark." The Audrey & Don Wood Gallery. Audrey Wood.com, http://www.audreywood.com/don-and-audrey-wood-gallery/originals/when-the-night-got-dark
Wood, Don. "King Bidgood." The Modest Peacock, Jenny Ray, Blogger, August 14th, 2012, http://themodestpeacock.blogspot.com/2012/08/wood-don-king-bidgoods-in-bathtub-and.html
Wood, Don, "When the night got dark." The Audrey & Don Wood Gallery. Audrey Wood.com, http://www.audreywood.com/don-and-audrey-wood-gallery/originals/when-the-night-got-dark
Inspiration:
Color: For this project, I was inspired by the usage of color in an artwork. I thought of having an illustration that uses only one color to convey the atmosphere of the image, like in Picasso's periods of art: Rose period, Blue period and African period. Since my art piece takes place in a dark room during a thunderstorm, I thought of the color blue or violet or somewhere in between like indigo. Blue is closely associated with rain and the color of a room in the dark.
Met, 2018, https://mymodernmet.com/pablo-picasso-periods/.
Picasso, Pablo. "Head of Man." Pablo Riuz Picasso, Pablo Ruiz Picasso.Net, 2009-2018, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-62.php
Richman-Abdou, Kelly. "The Evolution of Picasso’s Painting Style and What Each Artistic Choice Represents." My Modern Met, My Modern
Pablo Picasso.org. "Pablo Picasso's Blue Period - 1901 to 1904" Pablo Picasso, Pablo Picasso, 2009-2018, https://www.pablopicasso.org/blue-period.jsp
Met, 2018, https://mymodernmet.com/pablo-picasso-periods/.
Picasso, Pablo. "Head of Man." Pablo Riuz Picasso, Pablo Ruiz Picasso.Net, 2009-2018, https://www.pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-62.php
Richman-Abdou, Kelly. "The Evolution of Picasso’s Painting Style and What Each Artistic Choice Represents." My Modern Met, My Modern
Pablo Picasso.org. "Pablo Picasso's Blue Period - 1901 to 1904" Pablo Picasso, Pablo Picasso, 2009-2018, https://www.pablopicasso.org/blue-period.jsp
Planning:
I practiced coloring value by drawing three 3-D shapes and coloring them with the Red Blick marker accordingly to the light source I drew in the corner of the page.
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I redrew the first idea, but changed the look of the window, the grandparent and the child.
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I realized the way I drew the child for my second sketch looked as though the child wanted to go outside. I thought of ways I could make him look more frightened and worried.
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Process:
Colors and Dimensions:
- To start off, I experimented with different shades of purple and blue to find a color that would best suit the mood of the piece. (I also experimented with the positioning of the window and the bed on the dimensions I chose).
- The first color I chose turned out to be too purple and the dimensions were wider than the planning sketch, so I created a whole new document, making the dimensions shorter and the color more blue-toned.
- Throughout the project, I wasn't consistent with using the same color in different shades; If I wanted a color to be darker, I would drag the white outlined circle in the upper left corner- that indicates the color on the color wheel- towards the bottom right towards the black shades of that color, which would change the color into shades closer to blue or more close to purple. It wasn't consistent.
Making Layers and Using Grids:
- At first, I had tried to draw the window without another layer, but I kept erasing the background wall color. Adding a layer helps with singling out on object without accidentally erasing any other color. This concept took awhile for me to get use to, and it contrasts to the way my inspirations created their work, but it was a skill I need to develop.
- I also found a way to add a grid over the piece. In the upper left-hand corner underneath "file" and "edit", there are 8 different options including one-point perspective, perfect curved line grids and the grid for straight lines. Where ever I started to draw, which ever direction I went, I would draw a straight line from the point I started to the point I lifted the stylus. This was very helpful when drawing the window and the edge of the walls.
- I used the "one-point perspective" option to accurately draw the bed in correlation with the perspective of the room. I planned on having the left side of the room go farther in, therefore I needed to represent this somehow in my piece. I decided I would make the wall of the left darker to show the depth.
The Grandma and The Boy:
- I created a new layer titled, "Boy and Grandma" and shifted the layers on the right-side of the screen. The layer on top was the layer that would overlap every other layer on the list. The layer on the bottom of the list is the background. I started with getting an idea of how the figures will be positioned. I drew in a gesture/ sketch style.
- After that, I made different shades of the same color by moving the outlined circle in the color wheel in the upper-left hand corner around. To make darker shades, I would drag the circle to the lower right side and to make lighter shades, I would drag the circle to the upper lefts side. I also figured out that clicking the little gear in the thin left column next to the layers will make the layer disappear so it could see the layer with the boy and the grandma easier.
Titling the image and filling it:
- At this point of the process, I found a way to tilt the image. This helped me draw the grandma's face with accuracy since I'm use to adjusting a piece of paper to draw the profiles of people. Over top of the original gesture strokes, I used a darker shade of purple to draw the grandma's face. I started out drawing with a very thick line.
- Then, I began to fill the figures with the general shades I'd be going into detail later in the process. I didn't erase at all which in hindsight would've helped me with making the figures look cleaner with craftsmanship.
Cleaning up the window:
- I decided to clean up the window and make the lines clean and straight. I did so by using the grid option to make straight lines. I created shadows and values using thin lines by changing the color from darker shades towards the middle of the window panes and light shades outlining them.
- I created another layer to go behind the window pane layer. This would be the layer for the color outside and also for the lightning. I drew the lightning with a very bright, almost white purple in a very thin line.
- After drawing the lightning, I used the one-point perspective option to draw the shadows being casted by the light. I made a layer for the shadows that'll be casted by the lightning.
- I created a very light purple color to highlight the parts of the grandma and boy that'll be lit up by the light from outside. I also used it to outline how their final figure will look like.
- At this stage of the process, I combined all of the layers into one layer. I figured I would have an easier time wrapping my head around something that acted more like a physical art piece rather than having the ability to move the background and hide some objects in the piece. I began to lose my patience.
- I made light colors lighter and dark colors darker to have some variety in the piece.
- I started to go into detail with the shading of the grandma and the boy. I would take the darkest shade and color the part of the body farthest from the window, I also colored over the outlines I made for the figures to make them look more realistic.
- I realized the old woman's pajamas seemed to be glowing underneath the back of her head which was supposed to be a shadow, so I made the dark shades even darker to compensate for this. I used thick lines again, but went over other thick lines multiple times with different shades to create the illusion of folds in the clothing. After adding multiple shades of purple, I used the "smudge" tool and began to smudge these colors together. Smudge works like blending paints using water; I followed the strokes I made and dragged the color over bit by bit to mix colors together. If I circled the tool in one spot, the colors blending became apparent in that one spot.
Reflection:
This project proved to be very frustrating and took a lot of patience, but it was good skill developing for illustration drawings on a different medium I'm not used to.
The color I chose to work with I feel did not necessarily express the emotion I intended it to. The color is a purple/ indigo color and if I had made the color a little more blue, I feel the emotion of fear but also comfort could be conveyed better. I also feel the color blue would also be visually more pleasing than the indigo/ purple. The indigo/ purple seems a little unsettling which could also work with expressing the child's fear of the unknown.
In my attempt to create a style that resembles Don Wood's, I believe I was successful with including very light highlights and using a consistent color in different shades in my work. I also attempted to blend the brushstrokes into textures smoothly like in Wood's work using a smudge tool.
The color I chose to work with I feel did not necessarily express the emotion I intended it to. The color is a purple/ indigo color and if I had made the color a little more blue, I feel the emotion of fear but also comfort could be conveyed better. I also feel the color blue would also be visually more pleasing than the indigo/ purple. The indigo/ purple seems a little unsettling which could also work with expressing the child's fear of the unknown.
In my attempt to create a style that resembles Don Wood's, I believe I was successful with including very light highlights and using a consistent color in different shades in my work. I also attempted to blend the brushstrokes into textures smoothly like in Wood's work using a smudge tool.
ACT Questions:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I am able to identify the inspiration in my piece through the technique of using a very bright shade of purple to highlight the people featured in my drawing as in Don Woods art in King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of one of the websites I retrieved a photo of his artwork from admired Don Wood's artwork in children's stories and talked about the importance of illustrations to children's stories.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that color plays a big role into the emotion of a piece.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme is children's books and overcoming a challenge.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that an artist must do research to make what they are portraying accurate.
I am able to identify the inspiration in my piece through the technique of using a very bright shade of purple to highlight the people featured in my drawing as in Don Woods art in King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of one of the websites I retrieved a photo of his artwork from admired Don Wood's artwork in children's stories and talked about the importance of illustrations to children's stories.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that color plays a big role into the emotion of a piece.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme is children's books and overcoming a challenge.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that an artist must do research to make what they are portraying accurate.