Creative Struggle

With only two illustrations needed to complete my first solo picture book, I find myself quite tired of the project.  This book was first conceived in 2008, and I have been working on it form time to time for nearly 5 years now.  My skills have changed.  And I do confess I am bored of working on the same project for so long, especially, since I have all these other stories bumping around in my head.

Two illustrations, and I will be done.

However, this is not the way to complete the project to the best of one's ability.  To achieve great artwork, one must have love.  The artist must love what he/she is working on, otherwise the impatience shows through.

The way I combat this is to remind myself why I wanted to do this book in the first place.  I do love it.  I still love the idea, the concept and the lovely characters.  So I try to pour that love into each drawing, I draw.  However, the impatience does shine through.  And even though there are only two drawings to complete, it is a struggle to complete them.  I have a vision in my head, but I fear I lack the skill to get it just right.  I miss the days when I use to create artwork by copying photographs.  That is easy.  To create something out of nothing, is draining.

It doesn't matter how many others think my artwork is great.  I look at it and thing: I should brush up on my anatomy; what has made me pick a book about animals, when my specialty is people; why have I not gone with the simpler Disney-like cartoon style, instead of a fusing of cartoon and realism; why...

Negative thoughts.

So, to escape them, I give myself breaks and work on something else, hoping that once I return to my artwork, the magic would return with me.

This is one such break, and to illustrate, I will post the progression of that second last illustration:

This is the original thumbnail sketch, I have done in 2009.

This is the sketch I came up with in 2012 based on the original sketch.  Very rough.

I played with the elements of the sketch, trying to create a better composition.

I printed out the above sketch and proceeded to draw the illustration rough.  Here should be some more detailed sketches, but I have never bothered to scan them.  So just take my word for it that they did not work as well as I hoped they would.  I found them too busy.  Then inspiration struck: 

NO BACKGROUND!

There is way too much text, way too many people I was planning to sketch that the entire illustration looked like someone barfed out characters and text.   It was just too busy, and though it may have worked when painted (subtly in some areas, more intensely in others) I decided to remove the background form the drawing, because background is not what is important to the story at this juncture.

So I drew a rough illustration, but then realized that it wold be better if I kept the elements of the sketch separate.  After scanning all of these drawing in, and playing with sizes and composition, the following resulted:

I would call this a clean rough.

I printed out this composition, and redrew it again, changing certain elements:

Final Illustration Clean Rough

I drew in proper perspective (horizon line is at the main character's eyes--boy in the chair), and made sure all the characters were looking at the two peary caribou.  I also exchanged the red-haired hairdresser for the African-American, because I think she will stand out better against the white of the barber's shirt.

So, there you have it.  My intention now is to step away from this drawing until tomorrow, and look at it with fresh eyes, before I proceed to size it, ink it, and then paint it with watercolour.

(I do believe I should have the little Asian boy turning inwards a little more...)

If you see something I could improve in the drawing, please let me know.  My eyes are too tired to pick up on any mistakes.

Till next time...

M