Clarence, the Angel

 

It's been about a week since my last addition to the "it's a wonderful life" poster project. I really wish I could be working more rapidly on this, but it seems I can only work on this between all the other stuff. So to explain this process, I started out with the sketch, and laid in some grey tones, then I began working on color. I tried keeping with the same color pallet as with the George and Mary painting so that when I bring them together they'll be cohesive. So I brought the painting to a completed stage and pasted it into the frame work for the poster. (That's the second image I have posted) When i saw it side by side with the George and Mary painting I saw that they didn't have the same feeling. So I had to go back to my color stage and simplify a bit and warm up the colors. Also I went for a bit more monochromatic look. I really don't want these smaller portraits to take attention away from the center of the poster which will be George and Mary, so i simplified it a bit more and the monochrome will help to tone down the level of attention that it draws. Once I got it to fit the look that I wanted, I placed it inside of a circle which will be the frame work for each of the individual portraits. I kind of liked having the tip of his cap coming out of the circle, I feel like it gives it a greater sense of volume, as though it's coming out of the framework. 

I also wanted to thank everyone that has shown interest in my blog. I hope you can understand how much it helps to have the encouragement from you all. It can be pretty intimidating working on becoming an illustrator. There's a lot of really talented people that I've met over the past few years of school and when I hear people say that they like what I'm doing here on my blog it makes me feel like maybe I'm on the right track. So thank you so much with supporting me with this stuff that I love.

( Clarence "the angel" - digital painting )

"It's A Wonderful Life" progress

Here's a new project I'm working on. I've really loved Art Nouveau (Nu-Vo) for some time now. Any time someone says Art Nouveau, most people think Mucha. He's freaking amazing. I love his style, it's the perfect blend of the feminine with the masculine which makes his artwork the most romantic of any other style in my book. I've been doing a lot of sketching lately and I've really wanted to get a more finished piece done. So with Christmas coming up I've decided to do a digital painting in the Art Nouveau style depicting the story of the best movie ever made. "It's a wonderful life". I could seriously go on and on about that movie, I wont thought. I'll just say that story belongs in the bible. I've put together a little collage showing my process in creating this image as far as it is. I started by choosing a painting by Mucha that I really liked the color pallet. I pulled some of those colors out and created a color pallet that I could paint from. I also took some ideas about the architectural frame work that wraps the image. I then got to work on the painting and the frame, then put the two together. I also added a little bridge at the bottom. If you remember the story that was an important turning point for George Bailey. I also placed a moon behind George and Mary, a symbol of the familiar phrase "dance by the light of the moon" which they sing to each other. I think it's coming together nicely. I'll be adding some other characters to the 5 spheres that surround them. Probably Clarence, Mr. Potter, george's uncle Bill Bailey, and his little brother whom he saves from falling through the ice as a kid. 

Sketchbook Friday

Here's a current sketch I've been working on. It was just a sketch I was doing during my lecture class and I decided today to scan it in and start working on it a bit more. Yesterday at my illustration club meeting we had a cool demonstration from our club president Adam Munoa, he showed us some of the ways that he did things. One thing that i learned that was new was that in photoshop you have the ability to set your brush mode to be effected by your pen pressure. So if you push harder more paint will go down or if you want to push lightly you can do that too, and you don't have to keep messing around with your opacity. Anyways, it's always nice to learn something new that makes your process a little bit easier. This digital painting is still in progress but I'm done for the day so I thought I'd just post my progress.