Thursday 25 March 2010

Chickery Tip







































I decided to go for the happy trumpeters image to work up. The original sketch (previous post) was drawn at A3 size and was basically getting the idea down to test if it would work but the composition was a bit wonky & unbalanced...

I've realised that perhaps this is part of the reason that I find it hard to jump in and develop a piece - that I tend to start from a shaky foundation, a sketch or idea that I haven't nailed down before I start the piece... so how can this be remedied?!

Fortunately, I work just 10 feet from Showchicken - Nick Sheehy, who gave me a plan that's really going to help me build a solid foundation for my pieces - Thanks chicken! :)

To get the composition absolutely right, Nick suggested drawing out the piece as tiny thumbnails (about 3" tall) ...  it reduces a lot of fiddling with details and other distractions and really helps get the shapes exactly right in the working space. I guess this is old news for trained illustrators & such like ... but for me I can only describe it as a revelation! Nick has his own technique of blowing up the compositionally correct thumbnail for the final piece - I'll be blowing up & using a lightbox to transfer I think, once the piece is sound.

In little over an hour I tried a few things & developed the idea (see above) - I haven't finalised the final composition yet but I'm much more confident to move forward with the piece & happy with the direction it's taking.

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