This project started so long ago that I can't even remember when. I was telling a friend that I was taking a painting class and she suddenly remembered that she knows somebody (another friend's mom) who was in need of some illustrations. Turned out this friend's mom, Marina, created a children's play in verse based on the classic Cinderella story. And it came out so well that she wanted to share it with the world in a form of an eBook. Of course, sharing plain text is fun, but text with illustrations is much more exciting. So, that's where I came in.
I was a little scared, because this would be my first real illustration job. Granted, it wasn't paid and there were no deadlines, but there was a client and it was for a story, which is much different than drawing a single picture that just came out of your imagination. All illustrations would have to be in one style, characters would have to be recognizable from one page to another and the most important thing, they would actually have to relate to the written text. And I really never created any images based on a story. (This was before I took the illustration class). But I decided to take up the challenge, it would be a really good practice for me, I thought.
And so it began. We decided that the illustrations would be black and white, and look sort of like etching. And that there would be five of them – one for each scene in the play plus the cover.
The very first thing I did – I got stuck. I approached this from the wrong end. Instead of looking at the "big picture" I tried coming up with character faces which led me nowhere. Also I was using pen, which is not my strongest tool, and that just led to frustration.
Then I decided to be a bit more creative and thought I could try using ink monotype and see where it would take me. That didn't take me too far either. While the monotypes looked cool, they were too unpredictable and didn't want to shape into anything Cinderella-like. So that idea was abandoned as well.
(Monotype, or one kind of it rather, is when you take one piece of slick paper, drop some ink or liquid paint on it, cover with another slick piece of paper, smudge all that ink and pull the two papers apart. You can get some beautiful abstract things and then use your imagination to complete the drawing. Or leave as is.)
And then finally it dawned upon me that first I needed to come up with actual scenes, sketch them, and only after that concentrate on the details. So after very approximate compositional pencil sketches I used vine charcoal to do the real size sketches. Vine charcoal is great for such drawing cowards like me, because you can erase everything easily with your finger. And it's great for covering a large area of scary white sheet of paper in seconds. And once the paper is not white anymore, and you have something to work with, it becomes much easier. When you finally see a piece of your imagination on paper you can start editing it – see what's working and what isn't. It's also fun to look at yourself in the mirror afterwards – black mustache or brow extensions, or some kind of abstract face decorations are guaranteed.
And so I started drawing away. The whole process for each illustration came down to this: pencil sketch, vine charcoal sketch to figure out the composition, then a lot of vine charcoal editing, then details with charcoal pencils, and then supposedly the final stage in photoshop, where I'd make final edits and work on texture. "Supposedly final" because a lot of times after seeing the results in photoshop I realized that things were off, and I needed to redraw some elements or fix proportions, or add more details, etc.
Also when you're not in class and there is no critique, things become much more difficult for an inexperienced artist. You just don't see some mistakes. And that's where Masha came in, my greatest drawing mentor of all times. She made my life much more difficult because based on her very honest and constructive feedback I had to redraw most of what I considered to be finished work. Some of it in parts, and some from scratch. But I am very grateful for her input because she pushed my limits and the illustrations improved dramatically.
And it always amazes me, how some drawings you get almost perfect from the very beginning and some just won't come out right and you work and work on them, and redraw details or better yet start all over again. And two months later you finally have it. While the another one will only take you couple days. For instance, the scene in the basement (right above) was very easy. I got the composition right away and only had to redo small details. Where as the "Ball" scene (above) and the "Shoe" scene (below) were a complete nightmare.
So in the end, I am very happy that I took on this project. It wasn't easy by any means, but I definitely learned a lot. And I can officially say now that I've illustrated a book. :)
Here are full size illustrations. Or you can view them on Flickr.
And for those who can read Russian you can download and/or read the book on Kroogi.
I was a little scared, because this would be my first real illustration job. Granted, it wasn't paid and there were no deadlines, but there was a client and it was for a story, which is much different than drawing a single picture that just came out of your imagination. All illustrations would have to be in one style, characters would have to be recognizable from one page to another and the most important thing, they would actually have to relate to the written text. And I really never created any images based on a story. (This was before I took the illustration class). But I decided to take up the challenge, it would be a really good practice for me, I thought.
And so it began. We decided that the illustrations would be black and white, and look sort of like etching. And that there would be five of them – one for each scene in the play plus the cover.
The very first thing I did – I got stuck. I approached this from the wrong end. Instead of looking at the "big picture" I tried coming up with character faces which led me nowhere. Also I was using pen, which is not my strongest tool, and that just led to frustration.
Then I decided to be a bit more creative and thought I could try using ink monotype and see where it would take me. That didn't take me too far either. While the monotypes looked cool, they were too unpredictable and didn't want to shape into anything Cinderella-like. So that idea was abandoned as well.
(Monotype, or one kind of it rather, is when you take one piece of slick paper, drop some ink or liquid paint on it, cover with another slick piece of paper, smudge all that ink and pull the two papers apart. You can get some beautiful abstract things and then use your imagination to complete the drawing. Or leave as is.)
And then finally it dawned upon me that first I needed to come up with actual scenes, sketch them, and only after that concentrate on the details. So after very approximate compositional pencil sketches I used vine charcoal to do the real size sketches. Vine charcoal is great for such drawing cowards like me, because you can erase everything easily with your finger. And it's great for covering a large area of scary white sheet of paper in seconds. And once the paper is not white anymore, and you have something to work with, it becomes much easier. When you finally see a piece of your imagination on paper you can start editing it – see what's working and what isn't. It's also fun to look at yourself in the mirror afterwards – black mustache or brow extensions, or some kind of abstract face decorations are guaranteed.
And so I started drawing away. The whole process for each illustration came down to this: pencil sketch, vine charcoal sketch to figure out the composition, then a lot of vine charcoal editing, then details with charcoal pencils, and then supposedly the final stage in photoshop, where I'd make final edits and work on texture. "Supposedly final" because a lot of times after seeing the results in photoshop I realized that things were off, and I needed to redraw some elements or fix proportions, or add more details, etc.
Also when you're not in class and there is no critique, things become much more difficult for an inexperienced artist. You just don't see some mistakes. And that's where Masha came in, my greatest drawing mentor of all times. She made my life much more difficult because based on her very honest and constructive feedback I had to redraw most of what I considered to be finished work. Some of it in parts, and some from scratch. But I am very grateful for her input because she pushed my limits and the illustrations improved dramatically.
And it always amazes me, how some drawings you get almost perfect from the very beginning and some just won't come out right and you work and work on them, and redraw details or better yet start all over again. And two months later you finally have it. While the another one will only take you couple days. For instance, the scene in the basement (right above) was very easy. I got the composition right away and only had to redo small details. Where as the "Ball" scene (above) and the "Shoe" scene (below) were a complete nightmare.
So in the end, I am very happy that I took on this project. It wasn't easy by any means, but I definitely learned a lot. And I can officially say now that I've illustrated a book. :)
Here are full size illustrations. Or you can view them on Flickr.
And for those who can read Russian you can download and/or read the book on Kroogi.
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