I've been working on a picture book about a lonely kraken. Besides tweaking the words, I've explored the look and style of the illustrations. Here's how I have reworked a scene with Kraken and some mermaids, including changing the medium, the characters' looks, everything:
1. Mostly digital approach
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| © Sylvia Liu |
APRIL 2014: My first attempt was to create a stylized digital composite based on pencil drawings. I liked the moodiness, but it was a bit too stark.
2. Mostly analog (pastel)
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| © Sylvia Liu |
MAY 2014: I painted the scene in pastels, using bright and saturated colors, changed the kraken and used the mermaids from the first illustration.
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| © Sylvia Liu |
MAY 2014: The digital mermaids didn't match, so I painted them in pastels. This was striking but it didn't fit with the style and direction of my other illustrations.
3. Pencil drawing plus collage of acrylics, watercolor, and digital painting
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| © Sylvia Liu |
NOV. 2014: As a result of a class I took (Mira Reisberg & Kristine Brogno teaching at the
Children's Book Academy), I settled on the above look. This is the scene before the singing scene above. The rocks and water were made in analog (acrylic, watercolor and pastel), the sketches are done in pencil, and the characters are digitally painted.
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| © Sylvia Liu |
FIRST PASS: The above was the image I had critiqued in class. Mira and Kristine gave me some great suggestions on composition which resulted in this:
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| © Sylvia Liu |
4. Reworking the Palette
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| © Sylvia Liu |
JAN. 2015: While I liked the composition and the characters, something about the color palette felt a bit cold. So I reworked the background by adding warmer tones and some different textures. I changed the kraken's look slightly.
5. Final Touches
I'm getting some great suggestions from my friend
Kathryn Ault Noble (who was named to the SCBWI Illustration Mentor Program in August 2014) who is reviewing my portfolio in anticipation of the New York SCBWI. Based on those comments, my final looks like this (very subtle lighting changes):
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| © Sylvia Liu |
Who knows? This illustration may yet evolve some more, but for now, I'm happy with it.
Post Script
2/3/15 A New Kraken
So my husband didn't love my kraken character so I tried it again with a cuter character:
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| © Sylvia Liu |
