Monster bunny art recipe

Do check out Kate Parkinson's illustration blog, which I just discovered. Samples include her oil paintings as well as drawings done by hand and computer images. I love Kate's illustration style.

Today's Blatherpics are more Corel Painter 9.5 drawings, this time with a darker tone. I know that illustrators are encouraged to eventually settle into a particular style, one that art directors will identify with them.

I still feel I'm too much of a newbie to choose a style yet, which is why I've been experimenting with a wide variety in Corel Painter. I have noticed, though, that so far the drawing styles that tend to feel most natural to me is a cheerful cartoon-illustration style but also a style with a darker tone and with looser lines, like my Ancient, Snow Clones, and Rolling Head drawings. And the drawings on today's page, of course, which were SO fun to do.

I've joined the Art Recipes Flickr Group, in which members post finished pieces of art along with the "recipes" (step-by-step process) that go with them. Some of the process recipes are quite detailed and enlightening, like the one for this impressive Illustrator drawing of an Asian girl.

Anyway, here's a sample of one my process recipes, which you can find in this Flickr set. You can click on any image to see a larger version. I'm using the finished drawing as one of my LJ user icons.

	I filled the canvas with a dark brown colour as a base. My usual method is usually just to leave the canvas colour as white, because I like how bright the image looks. This time I wanted to try a different base colour.
	Next, I used the Loaded Wet Sponge to get some interesting coloured textures on the canvas.
	Using the Croquil brush, I sketched the monster bunny shape. The body was done quickly. I added the claws because I wanted to add a bit of menace.
	Next, I used Chalk to fill in the drawing, purposely left some fuzzy edges for visual interest and an extra nightmarish quality. Then I used the Lasso Tool to outline the shape of the mouth, filled that with a different colour and texture. Used the Lasso Tool again to outline the two sets of teeth, filled it with white. Used the Leaky Brush and Airbrush to create the stains.
	Used Croquil to add the red eyes and the pupil. The eyes looked too bright to me, so I softened the look a bit with some Charcoal.

I used the textured background technique in my drawing for this week's Illustration Friday. Topic: "Robots."



What does it say about me, I wonder, that I enjoy both the fun cartoony style above AND the darker style below?

Apr/2006 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments