Friday, June 17, 2011

Black and White Line Drawing Kids

I really don't plan to post all of the illustrations from my current books but I just finished off another yesterday and can't resist the urge to post it. So here it is.
The first is the thumbnail sketch, then the pencil line drawing of "gerti" and the turtle. Then the last is the near finished image. The dark black pen and ink lines were working good for the other  spot illustrations of objects but looked horrible for kids faces and hair. I tried a couple fo times and couldn't get a pleasing result with the pen and ink. SO I did a bit more digging looking into other artists. Then I found Denise Brunkus who uses a dark graphite pencil for the line drawing and then fills the drawing in with ink. I loved the soft edges of the pencil for the face contours and the gentle gradation in the hair and the fact that the pencil seemed to be easier to draw lines of varrying width and leave breaks in the line without looking bad. This final image is inspired by that medium and artist.

2 comments:

david said...

Nice work, man! I dig the technique too. Today, I was actually thinking of starting a series of portraits wherewith I use a similar technique. Instead of doing a drawing and filling it in with ink, I'd do some vague, first layer shapes in water color, and then filling in the detail with graphite. So I guess it's the same thing but backwards and in color.

That was a long comment, yes? Anyways, love you man, and loving the work! Stay strong, brother!

Matthew Gauvin said...

Thanks Dave-o!Let me know when you get your portrait done. I allways love seeing your new stuff.How're those thumbs doing? Miss you bro.