Exploring visual identity / process

Over time, I ihave established an easily identifiable visual identity. This has occurred naturally, through my use of favoured colour palettes and a drawing "style" that I naturally lean into. However, I think that the novel I am working on will require me to venture outside of my comfort zone in order to do the narrative justice. 

 

Whilst there is nothing wrong with having an established identity, I feel it is perhaps stagnating somewhat, and making my work feel very boxed in to a particular aesthetic. I really want to use this time to explore a more painterly approach to my work and understand backgrounds & lighting much better. 

To prepare for some of the illustrations in my book, I gave myself a couple of exercises in order to push my drawing process.

For the first challenge I set myself, I wanted to use a photo reference for the colours and lighting. I found one on Pinterest and drew my version of it. I wasn't aiming for a perfect copy of the photo, rather an opportunity to find a different colour palette.

Process video:

 

 

For my second challenge, I chose to redraw an older piece of mine to see whether I could improve on it. I selected an image from my instagram page and begun by crafting a background story for this character. From the illustration, we can see that she's a bit edgy and possibly has a bit of an attitude. I took these two points and expanded further;

 

I decided that this character suited a "nightlife" vibe and thought it would be a good opportunity to explore drawing some neon lights in the background too. These are what I crafted for the character;

- Her name is Mona, she's 28, a bit of a hardcore punk, looks mean but is actually really nice. 

I've drawn her on the inside of a window and tried to show that it is raining outside. I pictured her in a bleak motel or a bar, trying to wait out the rain.

I knew I wanted this piece to be very dark with just the neons and a few low ambient lights in the environment, so I painted in grayscale in order to focus on the colour values and textures first.

Once I had the values down, I used gradient mapping to do most of the colour work for me. I haven't used it before, but with a bit of tweaking and adding in some extra colour for the hair and skin, I loved the result.

For the final piece, I adjusted the colours in photoshop in order to make the colours really pop. I felt like the final version in procreate was just a little bit dull.

As this approach to digital painting is very new to me, it took quite a while. However I know that I want my book illustrations to be rendered similarly, and these were great exercises to force me out of my drawing comfort zone.