Here is an illustration I've been working on with the valuable help from my 12 x 12 illustration critique group. The bottom one is, obviously, the initial sketch with a wash of color. I worked on this in both PS and Sketchbook Pro 6 first of all scanning the pencil sketch into PS then going back and forth between the programs. Some of the changes i made on advice from the group were challenging in this new media and i learned to use some tools i never had a handle on before.Here are some of the changes/additions i made........
:I added the far bank in the back ground and changed it many times. : Moved characters around to make a more interesting composition and move the viewer eye around.
:Overlapped a few.
:Worked with the water a lot and eventually added the cartoony lines. What i really wanted to do is make the water swirl around but i still haven't master those tools yet. Something to work on!
:I took out the arm sticking out in front, as it made a 15th roo. I think there is only fourteen altogether!
:I extended the canoe a little above the horizon line and added a bar across the front so it would look less like a shark.
:Gave the punky roo in front a dye job on his hair to set him apart from the blonde girl roos and add variety.
:Added a paddle sticking out of the water and put a little shadowing on the roos.
:Oh and toned down the sinister looking girl roo who was hogging all the attention in the beginning.
About seven or eight revisions in all. There's more i could do but i conside this one processed enough for now and it needs to stop somewhere (at least for a while.) A big thanks to my critique group. Let's see what February brings!
Yes my teacher is a four year old.
After spending the last five years or so immersed in the Equine world of riding training and recovering from injuries I'm back in my studio. I've always ascertained kids are the best artists and the younger the better. My teacher, Cole James Keller is four years old and is an excellent artist. His sense of shape color and line is unfettered by all the fuss and bother us adults collect during a life time of such. He can 'see' and feel and put it altogether making it look like it 'just fell there'. The viewer is drawn in by the spontaneous, playful nature of the image and is able to wander around inside the piece feeling like a kid again! AND can he articulate his work? You bet!
See the bottom painting. Shamefully I copied his work. Well to the best of my ability. I will never be as good as my teacher and neither will he be in a few years. R
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