My Paradise Repost

We gals here at IFK are re-posting our Illustration Friday submissions along with giving a little insight into the why and how we created them.

--As for the 'why' (the concept) concerning my illustration, in this case, I executed one of the first ideas that came to my mind. It rarely goes that way, though. I tend to either just come up blank on the subject matter and/or go through idea after idea (making thumbs) until I settle on something. And even the idea I settle on usually goes through different variations and forms. For this week, though, it just happened. How I wish it were that way all the time!

--And as for the 'how' (the execution), I worked from start to finish in Painter X, working in layers. I chose to do this in a pen & ink & watercolor style which is very nice for working in layers. I didn't really have a rough as I wanted to work loose and fast. As you can see above, the ink/line work was ultimately flattened to one layer. I will create different layers for the elements (like the image of me, and then one for Bobby, then one for each floating thing, etc.). At some point, I'll compress the layers because getting too many makes it hard to keep track of and I get too lazy to have to name them all. I like to work with my hand-lettering in a separate layer as I do a lot of rewriting to make sure it's legible. That way I don't have to concern myself with doing harm to the main ink drawing.

--Once the inking is done, I move on to colorizing. The last week or so I've been experimenting with Painter's Digital Watercolors, so that's what I used here. For me, the DWs are best for simple & quick pieces I want to look more 'raw'. The DWs default to a transparent layer working over the inking. The DWs aren't as complex as Painter's Watercolor brushes, but you're still able to manipulate the diffusion & something called "wet fringe". These control how much the WC will 'bleed'. Once that was completed, I duplicated the piece which gives you a flattened copy. At this point, I felt it was a tad washed-out so gave it more contrast.

--One thing that I've been dealing with lately is being fed up with over-working my pieces. It's been happening way too often and I've just been plain ruining some pieces as of late. So this is one of several illustrations I've done in the last week which are done rapidly, forcing myself to back off and move on when appropriate. Folks, it's really not that easy to do! But I can tell you I have been REALLY enjoying the the end products much more as well as the process. I tend to feel like the MORE I work on an illustration, the better. No, for me right now, less is more.

Paula