Thursday, July 28, 2011

Newsletter illustration of couple on Jetski

Just completed this assignment of a couple on a Jetski for their company Newsletter. The hardest part was drawing the Jetski jussst right! they loved it.

As an artist, I have been fortunate to have rubbed shoulders with, taught by, influenced by, and even "stolen from" some of the best caricature artists in the world, all of whom have contributed to, influenced, and enhanced by approach to caricature.
One of my favorite character artists, is Terry Dunnett, affectionately known as TEL from Australia. (http://www.terrydunnett.com.au/Tels_Caricatures/Home.html)
In addition to being an excellent draftsman, Tel is a master of drawing accessories. By "accessories" I mean supporting items in a picture that the main characters interact with. Examples of accessory items, are cars, planes, snowmobiles, and jet skies. Prior to being exposed to Tel's work, I focused pretty much on the individual figures, and pretty much "winged" everything else. Even though my clients did not complain, I knew deep down, I had compromised, and given into lazy drawing. In comparison to Tel, whose accessory items were just as meticulously detailed as his caricatured. Visually, this added to the overall unity to his pieces as well.

That's when I started really concentrating on getting the accessories correct.
If a client takes time to mention they want a particular car or golf clubs in a picture, then obviously the item is an extension of them. This is the Bain reason why they should be given as much attention that you give to your favorite part of the drawing.

This particular jetski took me days to get to my satisfaction. It's not perfect, but definitely better than I might have done, years ago.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good lines. Nice airbrush work. Is it paint or digital?

Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling said...

The original caricatures and Jetski were drawn individually in pencil,inked with tomb and Pitt brush pens, redrawn on tracing paler, scanned and digitally colored on the iPad using the art studio application that is wonderful for coloring. Art studio is apples answer to Photoshop, and I really do lve it. The jest ski was painstakingly done and took me days to do just right. Drawing machinery is not my strong point, and this presented a good challenge for me. Thanks for commenting. I have some videos on you tube that demonstrates linesmen, and my approach, go to the Subwaysurfer channel

Unknown said...

Hahahaha - cheers Elgin !!
I only do the background in detail to draw the eyes away from the crap job I made of the main subject.
Owe you one mate ..................