It's been a slower start than usual getting Frankenstein put together. One of these reasons is that I have been playing around with technique. I thought it might be interesting to do all the illustrations for the book on dark paper. The papers would range from shades of brown, gray and black. Rather than adding darkness to the paper, the technique would rely on adding the highlights (bringing light out of the darkness). My theory was that it would give the illustrations a darker and grittier feel.
In exercising this test, I came to the conclusion that I prefer my original technique of painting darker colors onto white paper. Although the illustration on the dark brown paper has a darker tone, the technique displays a lack of grit and actually looks more modeled and slick, yet uncontrolled. I was frustrated with the difficulty it was translating the image in my head onto the paper using this technique. Accurate shapes and style are much easier to accomplish when working from white paper.
So there you have it. Two different approaches to the same illustration are displayed side by side so you can see their differences. I have decided to continue with my signature style, like the one on the left.
More to come soon.
Be Grim!
Gris Grimly
I looked at the image before reading the blog entry... and I came to the same opinion of the dark paper image. It is lacking something when compared to the white... those little details that pull it all together.
ReplyDeleteGlad you came to the same conclusion... because I wasn't sure how to tell you I liked the old way better. ;)