Emerging Style

I've always been a bit resistant to change, so when I settled on what I wanted my illustration technique to be many moons ago now, I have stuck with it no matter what. 

Settling on my technique of doing a drawing on gessoed illustration board and coloring digitally allowed me to be comfortable in exploring how I like to stylize my characters and their worlds. 

Taking the thinking process (or in my case, the over-thinking process) of what materials I want to use when I draw made it so I could really focus on what my style is.

This soft controlled technique has served me well and truly does speak to my aesthetic; a sweet tenderness that warms the heart.

This style is what captured my agent's eye and I have illustrated several picture books this way too.

So you may be wondering: 'Well what's the problem?' Well, no problem really, just that it is quite a time consuming technique to undergo. There really is not much in between either. I go from the messiest, loosest sketch to this tightly rendered illustration.

This was great for progress shots, but when it came to sharing cute little sketches on social media, I wanted something faster. Something that still fit in with my aesthetic but shared my expressive sketches in a colorful, more 'finished' way.

As many of us have observed, it is important to look at your overall gallery on social media platforms like instagram. And as an artist, aesthetics are important to me! I wanted to remain true to the aesthetic identity of my brand while being able to express myself through my drawings more quickly.

Working digitally is one of the more faster methods, at least for me, so I took to my ipad and started experimenting.

I started out simply enough, mostly with some patterns.

I used the regular graphite pencil brush to sketch as I normally would when I'm in the brainstorming/thumbnail stage of creating an illustration.

Then I created another layer on multiply and started experimenting with the brushes in the 'artistic' category. I find that I like how the painterly brushes look in addition to my sketchy lines. It reminds me of when I pull out my watercolors to just experiment and clear creative blocks.

So I kept going, how would this style look with a character? How about within a narrative?

I decided that I liked the style more on white backgrounds, or hinting at a background with the paint in much lighter tones.

After many exercises, I was starting feel comfortable with this way of working and made these guys, which are among my favorites.

The technique was starting to take shape the more confident I became. It was fast too! Soon, I was thinking about the possible routes this technique could take and it lead me to experimenting with more of a comic style. 

It has been fun using this style to share some of the funny thoughts I have in my mind throughout the day when I'm putzing around in my studio. 

I'm thinking of revisiting some older illustrations and re-creating them in this style and possibly introducing this way of working to my current portfolio.

If anything, I have learned throughout this process that it is ok to continue growing and experimenting. I do not have to necessarily be married to any one technique, but with that being said, it is important to have some consistency. 

After all, having two clear artistic identities is better than having one confused one.