They're Watching You

So another day with Little Red Riding Hood (or Red Ridding Hood, as my teachers seem to want to write it).  Today's task was to create a path for her to walk along.  This is one of the collage/sketches I managed.  Not particularly thrilled with the overall outcome but I do quite like the detail of the trees in the foreground and I will adapt this idea in the final project, me thinks.

I imagine a forest of red velvety trees.  In fact, as I was riding home on the metro ruminating on this idea, I noticed the girl opposite me had a great red velvet bag, exactly the texture I'd like to cover my trees with.  I contemplated for 5 stops whether to look like a total twit and ask if I could take a photograph, while she and her two friends planned their evening together in Paris.  In the end, I decided I didn't mind being a twit (lucky for me, really) and I asked for the photo, explaining it was for an art project.  She was very obliging, and happy that her bag served to inspire someone.





Forest of Eyes

Forest of Eyes - detail

 



Forest of Eyes - super detail!









 

Hungry Like the Wolf

 

Stripey Woodlands

I really was a bit stuck for inspiration in my last class.  I think the Little Red Riding Hood theme is starting to wear a bit thin....

Anyway, this is what I created.  I used ink to paint the stripey forest and guache and collage for the trees and Little Red Riding Hood (I was about to invent an acronym - LRRH - but then realised how very uncool that would be, so I'll continue to type it out in full... sigh...).

Then I taped it up on the wall to get the full effect (it is about 1.5m x 2m) - except I got roused on by the head of school because I had taken up too much wall space in the illustration room.  I think he felt bad afterwards, because then he asked me to pin it up on display in the corridor for the whole school to see.

Maybe that was my punishment for being a greedy wall hog.

Wild and Woolly

A couple of wild wolves and a woolly forest.  Pen and ink drawings with collage.

The art of seduction

We were given a task last week to draw up a ten frame story board, describing someone's attempt to seduce someone else.  The only requirement was that the story needed to involve a glass of wine.

We had one and a half hours to draw up the rough sketches for our teacher's approval and then a week to finalise it.  Of course I left my homework until the last minute so I was up late on photoshop last night busily clicking away to colour each frame.

Without a scanner at home, I first drew the pictures on white paper with pen, then took a photograph of the drawings and uploaded those photos into photoshop to colour them in.

Not very technologically sophisticated, but it will do for now. 

Into the woods

I was very happy with the tree-technique I serendipitously stumbled upon while mucking around with charcoal the other day.  So I made a whole forest of trees for Red Riding Hood to race through. 

This is a combined drawing/collage/watercolour illustration.

 

 

 

 

A couple of cabins

These are a couple of cabins I created for Red Riding Hood's granny.  The first one is a paper cut, with a page from the free Paris metro mag behind.  I mucked around trying to get the face of the girl to show in the window (maybe like Red Riding Hood peering out), while still getting the right colours in the trees, grass etc.  Once I had glued it in place, I noticed that the shapes have also created the silhouette of an old lady in the doorway - maybe Grandma sitting by the fire place doing a crossword or playing with her starwars figurines.




Papercut house



 

The second drawing was a quickie - a bit of a stock-standard looking old cabin, done in charcoal.

Sleeper

A sketch of an unsuspecting passenger on the train ride from Paris to St Amand last weekend.

He was a great model - I could stare and stare at him and he was none-the-wiser.  He was snoring really loudly too.  It was very entertaining for everyone in the carriage.

Sleeping Man

Cassanova Caveman

 

 

He's such a dreamboat.  So romantic!

One Two Three

For Alicia's birthday on Saturday I made her a card.  Except I thought she was turning 3, so I designed a card for a three year old, only to discover that she was in fact only going to be 2.  Once I had done 2 and 3, I figured I might as well do 1, and complete the series.

The three pencil/watercolour sketches are below - very 'cute' and not really what I enjoy drawing, but I think she liked her kangaroo.  Marylene likes the squirrel - so she'll get him.  As for the drunken parrot, well I guess we'll just hang out together for a bit longer. 

One

Two

Three!

Little Round Riding Hood

I've developed the sketch from Little Round Riding Hood - in acrylic + watercolour.  The Wood-cutter gets a look in this time too.

 

 

 

 

The Wolf

The Wolf gets Granny-ed up.

The Wolf

The big bad wolf in his many forms.  Mostly playing around with watercolour.



Rainbow Wolf

 

 

Pink Wolf

Zen Wolf

Over-indulged Wolf

Grotty Wolf

Snuggly Wolf

 

Watercolour Wolves






 

Little Red Riding Hood & Granny

Here are some of my sketches from the first weeks of Little Red Riding Hood and her Granny

I'm trying to find a style and medium I'm happy with.  Not there yet.



Black and White Red and Granny

Angular Granny



Angular Red Riding Hood



Classic Granny



Nose Picker

Little Round Riding Hood

 



Skinny Granny
 

 

Fluro Granny




 

And so it begins

A bit selfishly, this blog is more for me than it is for you (aren't most?).  It is a way for me to keep track of what I'm up to at art school, and in my extra-curricular creative moments.  Sort of an online sketch book/visual art diary.  But maybe you'll enjoy it too.

I have enrolled in two courses here in Paris - Illustration Worlds and Conceptual Drawing.  Both led by groovy teachers who are very accomplished illustrators (Emmanuel Kerner http://emmanuelkerner.blogspot.fr/ and Loic Secheresse http://www.loicsecheresse.com/blog/) so it is all very exciting and stimulating.  (don't worry - I'm not being a complete leche cul (bum licker) because my teachers won't be reading this).

In Illustration Worlds we are working on a Little Red Riding Project - using the characters and the setting to explore different illustration media each week.  It is a nice dreamy course where I can doodle away for hours each Tuesday, interrupted only by helpful tips and pointers from Emmanuel.  He has an awesome library full of illustration books both for kids and adults.

Conceptual Drawing is more about capturing ideas and developing illustration techniques.  It is more dynamique and challenging and we are given short assignments each week to complete in a couple of hours - things like poster design or motion drawing.

I'm going to post bits and pieces from each course here as well as other stuff that takes my fancy from my sketch book and beyond.