Last year I created the illustrations for a children's book called Towers Falling. My drawings were meant to be the drawings created by one of the main characters, a boy called Ben. Just thought I'd show the process from my urban/observational sketches to the final illustration.
As soon as I got the brief I knew (in my head) what I wanted the sketchbook pages to look like. I'd spent a good couple of years filling up these small cheap sketchbooks with quick drawings of buildings and people. Mainly people. These pages were my starting point.
I really liked the layout of the one above, with the different size faces.
I also wanted all the people, to be authentic; to be people that I'd sketched from life, on trains, planes and in cafes.
The brief here, was to illustrate a couple of Ben's sketchbook spreads, that he'd made of commuters on the subway. I chose this girl, above, to begin with - mainly because it was one of my favourite observational sketches. It's so much easier when they're asleep.
Starting with her, I then worked in the other characters around her, filling up Ben's sketchbooks with characters from my own (get's confusing, doesn't it?).
A few friends, and people I sketch with, ended up becoming people on the subway too. And, I squashed another girl, from one of my favourite train sketches, below, in on the bottom left. Sure, it's not exactly like her, but that's why we have our artistic licenses.
I love how these random people have made their way into the story. I find myself creating whole new characters for them, as I draw them commuting on the New York subway. They take on a whole new life, out there in the world.
Urban sketching, observational drawing, whatever you want to call it is something I do to improve my skills. I don't associate myself, or my work, with a specific genre or group. I don't consider myself as an 'Urban Sketcher', it's just something I do a lot of. But, it's just a part of my work. I like the way I've embroidered it into my book illustrations here. I like taking it a step further.
Dunno why. Just do.
3 comments:
Aha! Generously shared, Thank you!! Skillz........ :)
I love to see how an artist went about creating their designs. Such a great way to document your thought process and artistic design style. Great blog. Keep posting your work.
Love your blog. It is great to see how you decide which character to include and what style to design your art with. Blogging is a perfect way to save and share your memories of the day that you created the artwork. Awesome. Keep posting. Love it.
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