Illustration Master Class 2017 – the painting!

My goodness, I had a marvellous and educational time at The IMC 2017. I’m still processing everything I learned – it was a very intensive week. But here is an overview, with the pieces I worked on.

Pieces. The intention of The IMC is that you work on one large piece over the week. As you will see, mine was more of a personal evolution, but not for that reason a failure or loss at all. I had many epiphanies.

(Note: The prompt I worked to was for Seanan McGuire’s Beneath The Sugar Sky, in which there is a rhubarb soda sea, so I also used a lot more pink than I usually would!)

So: At the beginning of the week, when we were still all at the thumbnail stages, I was being heavily influenced by all the fabulous painters around me. Without consciously considering it, I felt I ought to be very painterly.

I’m not a painter. I learned to thumbnail much more boldly, and came to terms with doing that tonally, but in terms of how I was going to execute the idea, I managed to get myself pretty worked up. Although I still rather like the skull above.

Then we had two lectures close together: Irene Gallo’s presentation on colour in art, which featured many illustrations that were much more graphic in style; and Daniel Dos Santos’s lecture, in which I realised that while I resent the fact that his work looks like magic to me, and want to paint well enough to see the point where it comes together, I do not in fact want to paint like him or even paint all that much at all. Just enough to incorporate the lessons into my own style.

So I went back to my desk, scrapped my plans and went back to the extreme basics: Silhouettes. Having cut those out, I played around with the scrap paper, using it as a stencil and adding in details. I found I didn’t mind doing that. That’s just cheating on silhouettes.

And it turned out the reference photos I’d taken when I thought I’d be painting did feed into the shapes and angles of the silhouettes. One of my IMC realisations was that preparations are seldom wasted (lots of my epiphanies on the trip were obvious, and some I could have parroted before).

I’d decided by this time that what I wanted to get out of The IMC was learning how to be at it: learning how to learn. How to get everything I want from a lesson, drag it back to my lair and process it into my own work.

So, next I just added a bit more detail to that silhouette and began building it up in gouache, remembering the little textures I love in medieval paintings and Pauline Baynes’s illustrations.

Now, I was surrounded by painters, but one of the wonders of that is getting to see how people actually think a painting onto the canvas. Getting to watch John Jude Palencar paint and think, “Oh wait, it looks like a painting when he’s finished, but the process looks to me like cross-hatching and wash. I know that. I can think that way.”

It was also good being able to go up to illustrators with a sheaf of pen-and-ink drawings and have them draw over them on tracing paper, and getting to see and hear how they would have solved the same problems.

Another realisation was how much tidier having to comply with work health & safety regulations keeps a workspace. I didn’t spill anything.

I was feeling more confident with the gouache now, but I was worried about losing the liveliness in sketches. So for the next piece I did the thumbnail sketch, took reference photos (which I won’t show, as I haven’t the permission of the models, but they look like the world’s most awkward ballroom dancing lesson).

Then I sat down and drew the picture without looking at the reference. Then I used the photos to go back in and adjust details and accuracy. It certainly helped.

And I used up the leftover paint drawing in other people’s sketchbooks.

Here’s a drawing of reference photoshoots happening.

So! On ot the finished pieces:

Here is a digital composition of the silhouettes

(The painted silhouettes on their own for comparison)

A little Cake Queen, painted largely without reference, but with obvious Andrew Hem influences on approaching planes of colour.

An even tinier pen-and-ink version of the lady.

Seanan’s Cora swimming. I like the tiny skull so much (you may notice a pattern here).

And the final gouache painting of the walking figures.

In the end, they were all vignette drawings, but someone who knows me said “Next you’ll learn to draw backgrounds, and then you’ll be a real illustrator.” He got a multipurpose background in his sketchbook.

Another point Irene made was about the elements fantasy illustrators should be able to handle, like horses, and others which it is good to show you can do, like group scenes. That’s why I ended up painting the three walking figures, to check that I could! And since I rather enjoyed it, I started looking for more crowds to draw: Here are the survivors of the IMC at about 2am on the last evening.

A few lessons that resonated for me (there were many more – these are the ones which were still echoing around my head this week):

• Preparation pays off.
• Thumbnail using tones.
• Take good, well-lit, detailed reference photos.
• Keep caps on bottles.
• Gradients! Use them compositionally.
• Go to galleries and look at just one thing: a colour, fabric, use of highlights, etc.
• Watch how ink lines end, and use lines to echo shapes in other parts of the drawing.
• Whatever you’re doing (in composition, colour, etc), commit and then push it further. This came up a few times over the trip: exaggerating scale, doubling down on ‘errors’ instead of taming them.
• Skulls and wigs and gauntlets are things people just own and bring to workshops with them.
• Always do more than you need to, professionally. Get up earlier, or paint images twice, or…
• The cheerfulness and generosity of real (apparent) confidence.
• When watching a demonstration, copy it rigorously, then go back and try doing it your own way. I’ve always skipped the middle step, but it turns out I learn more by watching and emulating before getting creative.

… I just pulled out my notes and got distracted by all the wonderful information, but I will leave this list as it is.

But more: It was amazing to be surrounded by professional, excellent artists, all learning and critiquing, helping, posing, advising, sharing advice on brushes and paints, but never doubting the worth and ability of what was on display.

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September calendar – harpies

September! It is spring here, so this month’s calendar is all harpies and flowers.

They’re all based on assorted pigeons, and some of the flowers are real. Ish.

As ever, they are brought to you by my dear patrons at patreon.com/tanaudel: for as little as $1/month, you can get the calendar early – and other news and updates.

And an update! Last month’s coracle race is now up on Redbubble on scarves, t-shirts, etc.

 

The River Bank

Look what’s coming out soon! Kij Johnson’s The River Bank, from Small Beer Press, with my drawings!

This is such a delightful story, and I cannot wait to read it as a REAL BOOK – they now exist in the world:

Arrived and going out soon: The River Bank by @kijjohnson and @tanaudel pic.twitter.com/ieGG3hqdCE

— Insistent Resistant (@smallbeerpress) August 30, 2017

Publisher’s Weekly had very nice things to say about it.

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August Calendar: Coracle Race!

I have been travelling for weeks, and still feel like I’m in motion. So, for August: a coracle race! (Also brought to you by a coracle-bound mouse in Kij Johnson’s forthcoming The River Bank (illustrated by me!), late-night discussions of Narnia and Reepicheep while at Readercon, and by all my supporters on Patreon, who get the calendar early – you can too!).

 

Edit: I left this open to confusion. These calendar mice are not specifically in The River Bank, but the monochrome fellow below is, and the book does of course feature certain folk Messing About In Boats.

You can see more River Bank illustrations at Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, or preorder the book from Small Beer Press. 

I had to research coracle races for this calendar, and the energy expended is hilariously disproportionate to the speeds achieved.

As usual, the calendar is below – you can print it in colour, or in black and white to colour it yourself.

If you like the calendars, please do consider supporting them on Patreon. $1 a month adds up and goes a long way towards keeping your friendly neighbourhood illustrator sufficiently caffeinated to get them done!

 

 

Wanderlust – the Iceland art show

Wanderlust is Light Grey Art Lab’s exhibition of art from their 2016 Iceland residencies (which I attended). The exhibition is full of gorgeous art which, if you cannot get to Minneapolis, you can also see online – and buy in the art shop (including the originals of my paintings).

I sent in a set of four watercolour illustrations for a story I have been working on, which rose from the process of learning to filter stories through different landscapes.

I had been wanting to use more watercolour instead of digital colour over my line work.

I started researching a particular school of ink-and-wash illustration, and then went sideways into pencil and watercolour.

Here Our Heroine is set a task by three unusual ladies.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars

One of several dresses of unconventional material.

A Gown of Moss

This is a rock we stood on when looking for puffins.

She stood on a rock

She pulled him from the sea

They are at a pretty typical scale for my work – and the originals are available from Light Grey Art Lab.

Originals

 

 

July calendar: Starcatchers

My continued thanks to all my patrons on Patreon who make this calendar possible!

Apparently catching stars is about as easy as herding cats. So it made sense that the birds responsible would be some of the more unimpressed and harried birds of my acquaintance, who when not pretending to be sticks can be found in bushes, howling (we used to call them murder-birds, at uni). Bush stone-curlews really do look and sit like this. They also find their own reflections entrancing. And (Triple-J language warning) one used to be pretty accurate on Twitter.

IM NOT SCREAMING IM JUST REALLY GLAD TO BE OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

— Bush Stone-Curlew (@FeralCurlew) July 29, 2013

So here, to print pre-coloured or for colouring, is the July calendar. (Don’t forget to support on Patreon, if you’d like to make sure the calendar can keep happening).

 

Ditmars!

First of all, congratulations to all the winners and finalists for this year’s Ditmar Awards!

If you were following the ballot announcements, you might have seen that I was shortlisted for “Best Fan Artist”, but that no award was given. This is because I asked the committee if I could be withdrawn from eligibility – it’s been such an honour to receive several Ditmars in this category, but there are so many wonderful and committed fan artists who should be promoted and considered, and as most of my illustration work is professional now I wanted to make sure attention goes where it should. Always happy to accept nominations in other categories, though!

However, I was a bit conflicted about withdrawing this year – because I designed the Ditmars, and I kind of wanted one!

My part of the design was a cut paper silhouette – so much fun with the swirly bits!

But the awards were cut and constructed by Allan Carey of the marvellous Type40 – your source for all your themed shield and weapon needs (check out the Wonder Woman shield!)

 

Type 40

 

 

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