Watercolor practice

In his blog on July 21, James Gurney gave a nice lesson on doing watercolor sketching, starting with a pencil sketch, and then what he calls a "ghost wash", a wet-into-wet watercolor wash, in order to establish colors and tones in a lovely, soft mush.  Then as the paper dries, smaller brushes and more details can be added. 

Usually I begin with lines; I thought I didn't like the wet-on-wet look.  But now I wanted to try it.  So I have been experimenting with it this past week, with results much more pleasing than I would have thought. 

For this, I sketched Tofu sitting on the couch reading a book, but then he left before I could put any color on the page.  But the next day, with the same kind of light, I sat in the same place to paint.  Looking at the couch without Tofu there, I didn't have an exact reference for the shadows on his body, but I could see more or less where the dark and light places would be, and make educated guesses.  

I like the contemplative mood that the softness gives to the picture. 

Designing a monster

At the Illustrators Master Class in June, one of our instructors was the wildly creative Iain McCaig, concept designer for LucasFilms.  One day he taught an impromptu class on How to Design a Monster.  I saw the first three Star Wars films, but as the first one came out in 1976, and Mr McCaig is surely under 50, he did not do designing for those.  I didn't see the later movies, the ones he did design creatures for, but I heard that the designs were the best part of them.  From what I saw of his work, I believe it. 

Here is what he taught us, as well as I remember (I didn't take notes).

Step one
Ask yourself questions about what the monster is like. 
Where does it live?    --sea?  desert?   air?  swamp? 
What is its general shape?    --roundish?  long and thin?   angular?  flat?

Where is it on the food chain?

What does it eat?

How does it propel itself?    wings?  legs?  tail? 

How many wings, legs, etc does it have?

Don't spend too much time working out the details at this stage.  Just go with your first notion.

Step two

Find some things nearby to use as reference for your drawing: a pillow, electronics, furniture parts, dogs, cats: whatever is around.  Find and draw something the general shape of the body you have chosen, something for the legs, tail, wings, etc.  Draw these references, but don't try to put the whole creature together at this stage.  You are just finding references for your drawing.

Step three

Using your references for the shapes of your monster's parts, and the ideas you have chosen for its characteristics, draw your monster.

Today I was telling my grandson Tofu and his mother Hisako about what I learned.  We decided to collaborate and draw a monster.

Here is the one I drew with Tofu's input.

Its body is based on a horsetail reed, its tail a lucky rabbit's foot, its eyes (4 of them) are from the light fixture in our kitchen.  It lives in the desert, eats salt (hence its tongue on the ground); is slimy, and has no feet. 

Here is Tofu's monster.  It lives in Yosemite, has a flat body, five legs, a rope-like tail, and eats grubs. 

Tofu and I are ridiculously pleased with our first venture into the world of creature making.

I think Tofu's father Seth would also be pleased.

It turns out that one of the students at IMC, Chris Pigden, caught 12 minutes of Iain's monster-making workshop on video, which he has put on his website here (on Sunday, August 14).   It's worth watching, for Iain's combination of energy and carefulness, and how he weaves his own vision from the ideas other people give him.

At work

June this year brought the most extraordinary week.  IMC was a week of working hard on a single painting under the concentrated tutelage of a collection of eminent illustrators, people who are at the top of their field, and have an understanding of what it takes to do great illustration work, forged through years of putting themselves wholly into their art, having it judged by art directors, and continually drawing, creating, drawing.

And there were also my fellow students.  Some of them are professional artists in their own right, some are students just out of college, some like me, are people who have done art all our lives, but needed a little something more to give us a jump start.  There was a general atmosphere of learning.  We all knew that we were there to learn, and were looking for insights everywhere.  And the insights turned out to be available around every corner, from great illustrators coming around to your place and pointing out something that could make your work better, to astonishing talks from the likes of James Gurney, Donato Giancola, Iain McCaig, and Rebecca Guay (whose brainchild this class is). 

The picture above is my final from IMC.  The project was the children's book option: a book cover for a book called "The Trouble with ____" (we decide the subject).  From the outset I thought that the trouble should be with an individual, not a class of things.  With a little brainstorming help from Bob, I decided that it should be about dear goofy Aunt Sally who has decided she wants to be a superhero.