Romeo and Juliet (and process)

Hi everyone!  I wanted to share a new illustration.  And I'm happy to say I can actually post my process for this piece since I remembered to save the steps as I worked! 

I was dying to do some sort of interpretation of Romeo and Juliet.  You all know I'm hooked on romance!  So I grabbed my sketchbook to do some thumbnails and idea sketches.  One of the ideas kind of "stuck" with me so I scanned it, adjusted it and started working with and revising it.  I included a border design because I've been enjoying using decorative and graphic elements in my art lately.

Scan from my sketchbook

Rough redrawing

Final sketch

The final sketch doesn't have all the details drawn into it because I always get impatient doing too much with a final sketch.  I like deciding what the details will be and then just going for it in the final drawing!

I used a light table to trace the final sketch onto a piece of paper from my sketchbook.  I like the feel of the paper and the graphite drawing wasn't going to be final art anyway, so it didn't matter to me if the paper wasn't of great quality.

Graphite drawing

Then I scanned the graphite drawing into Photoshop, adjusted the lines for lightness/darkness and cleaned up the result.  But I didn't clean it up completely!  I wanted some of the qualities of sketchiness and graphite to remain.  I also transformed the angles and sizes of the heads and faces.

Digitally adjusted pencil drawing

From there I researched colorizing black and white photos in Photoshop.  I've never digitally colored a pencil drawing before and I figured the instructions for colorizing photos would translate as well as anything!  I played around with colors, which I think is the absolute best part of coloring digitally.  You can try whatever you want and not ruin your base art.

Color trials in Photoshop

One thing I tried that worked well for this piece was duplicating the line art layer in Photoshop and pasting it on top of the original one, set to "multiply" and at an opacity of 100%.  It really punched up the line art, which I thought was good since the colored graphite lines didn't look strong enough to me with only one line art layer.  The punched-up line drawing supported the color well too without losing any of the details I liked about the drawing. 

Final colors and details were worked out and rosy cheeks were added.  I also created and added a signature, something I hadn't bothered with earlier.

Final art

I'm really happy with how my "Romeo and Juliet" turned out.  It's about time I did a process post, eh?  I hope you enjoyed it.  As always, thanks for visiting!

Added June 6, 2013:  "Romeo and Juliet" is now available as an art print in my Society6 shop here.

Illustration Friday: "Secret"

For this week I did a quick, loose ballpoint pen drawing in my sketchbook, scanned it and tinted it in Photoshop.  It was time for a little romance!

Illustration Friday: "Sight"

"W-A-T-E-R"

One day in the spring of 1887 Helen Keller, then almost 7 years old, learned that there were names and words for everything.  Her teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled the word "w-a-t-e-r" over and over into the palm of one of Helen's hands while running water over her other hand at the family pump.  Helen's world opened up and her life was changed forever.

I enjoyed reading about Helen this week while working on this illustration. Here are links to some of the sites I especially liked:

Helen Keller Kids Museum - Ask Keller
The Story of My Life.
Helen Keller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helen Keller Foundation for Research & Education

Illustration Friday: "Heights"

"Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!"

My idea for this week's prompt was to illustrate Rapunzel looking down at the prince from the heights of her tower.  Unfortunately I didn't get time to go any farther than this sketch!  I'll finish it though, and add it to the blog when it's done.  The weird circle at the top of the drawing was on the sketchbook page in ink so I couldn't get rid of it.  I figured nobody would ever see this sketch so it wouldn't matter! Anyway, please imagine that circle isn't there and I hope you like the drawing so far.  

First sketch of the prince

Illustration Friday: "Return"

The Return of Persephone

In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of earth and agriculture as well as sister to the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.  She had a beloved and beautiful daughter, Persephone.  Unbeknownst to Demeter, Zeus, king of the gods and Persephone's father, had agreed to let his brother Hades take Persephone as his bride.

One day, as Persephone was gathering flowers, the ground opened up and she was abducted by Hades, who was god of the underworld.  Demeter searched for her daughter and in her anger and grief refused to let anything grow upon the earth.  Zeus realized that the earth would soon perish and decided to arrange for Persephone's return.

As the story goes, if one ate anything while visiting the underworld they had to remain there forever.  When Hades learned that Persephone was to leave him, he offered her the seeds of a pomegranate to eat, and she ate a few.  Some versions of the myth suggest that Persephone had fallen in love with her husband and wanted to make sure she could go back to the underworld to be with him.

Zeus sent the messenger god Hermes to bring Persephone out of the underworld and return her to Demeter.  It was a joyous reunion!  Spring returned to the earth and once again there were lush plants, crops and grain.  But since Persephone had eaten the seeds, Demeter agreed that her daughter would spend three months a year with her husband in the underworld.

Winter comes every year during the time that Persephone is with Hades in the underworld, and when she returns to her mother Spring arrives again.

Medieval in ballpoint

I love medieval images.  And nice, non-blobby ballpoint pens.  Right now I'm using Bic Round Stic Grip in black fine point.  Nice!  This was scanned out of my sketchbook from this evening.

A page of male faces

Thinking about it now, I wish I'd done a Santa hat on one of these!  Pen and ink with black watercolor wash.  

Illustration Friday: "Vanity"

Mother's Vanity

Illustration Friday: "Stripes"

Admiring the view on the beach, 1900

Watercolor block sketchy doodles

Last night I used an old watercolor block page as a sketchbook.  I had just opened a little watercolor set ( Cotman Sketchers' Pocket Box by Winsor & Newton) and I really wanted to play around with the cute little blocks of watercolor.  I was sketching mostly with ballpoint pen so I couldn't correct anything.  Then I touched up some of the drawings with pen and ink after the watercolor dried.

You can see the little boy's head from the top picture in the bottom corner of the bottom one.  I cleaned the top sketch up to post alone because it was my favorite.  No judging the bad proportions!  Pen sketching means you just kind of....go with the flow!

Illustration Friday: "Scattered"

Illustration Friday: "Ferocious"

In an American tall tale, Pecos Bill roped a ferocious tornado with his rattlesnake lasso and rode it all the way to California.  There, as it rained itself out, Bill fell off.  When he fell, he created a low spot in the ground that became Death Valley.  Come to think of it, Bill was pretty ferocious himself!

Boots 'n' Dots

Just playing today and thought I'd share the result!  It's inked with crow quill and finished in Photoshop.

Today's favorite sketch

This gal is wearing some large-sized shoes, eh?  I always did have trouble with feet. And today I wasn't looking at any reference to help me!  Still, I like the feel of this sketch and drawing a fashion-style figure felt really good, like going back to my roots. This was drawn in ballpoint pen in my sketchbook, scanned and laid on a pink background in Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: "Disguise"

Who might this hero be?

Fast sketchbook pencil drawing, scanned

and scribbled on in Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: "Obsession"

Mmmmmmm........cupcakes......

First digital painting!

It's about time I tried painting (not just coloring) in Photoshop, so today I did and I love it!  I didn't take the time to develop a good drawing because I just wanted to play, but what the heck?  Now there will be something to look back on if and when I improve!

My favorite things about it, at least today, are the lack of mess, the ease of changing things, and the almost instant gratification.  Nothing had to dry.  And there is no fear of messing up.  Very freeing.

Illustration Friday: "Stay"

Illustration Friday: "Remedy"

"Now, let's see how I can help you...."

Sketchpage 1

I need to sketch more, draw more, experiment more.  That's the only way I'm going to find out what really floats my boat.  I know I've said that before!  Procrastination, fear, life get in the way.  This needs to become a priority.  These are from this morning, sketched while I watched the Tour de France.

Some are "random shape" creations and some are general doodles.  A few are pencil but most are done with ballpoint pen.