A Den Full of Foxes

This week I returned to a project that I have shared with you before.  It's my Fox Went Out On A Chilly Night picture book project that is part of my thesis project at the Academy of Art University.  I want to add another three paintings to this project by Mothers day!  I'll post my progress so you can hold me to my deadline:)  I find a deadline always helps me and accountability to others as well, so it's up to you to keep me on track!

You can see here the beginning of my work on this painting.  In the top picture you can see my storyboard on the bottom of the pile of papers.  These are my original thoughts on what should be on each page.  Then you can see some of the photo references I used to create the painting I am working on.  This painting is the last page of the book where all the fox, his wife and all their kits are fast asleep in their den as winter snows cover the land.  I use prima color markers to do a value study thinking about the previous paintings I have done and my focal point.  Sometimes the prisma color markers don't have the right values that I am looking for and her is a case in point.  I wanted the tree to be the darkest value, but this value study it is a little too dark, so in my color study I adjusted the value as you can see below.  

I felt that the too dark tree against the light background brought your eye away from the subject of the foxes, so I lighten the tree and put more emphasis on the foxes by playing with cool versus warm colors to bring your eye to the focal point.  I think it reads better now, what are your thoughts?  Let me know in the comments below:)

Tschuss

 

Jack's Christmas Present

I wanted to share with you a wonderful opportunity I had to get to know a little boy by the name of Jack.  Jack is the sweetest little boy whose grandfather discovered me at the Cornhill Arts Festival this summer.  He told me that Jack loves his swing as much as the boy in my book "The Swing".  He asked if I could paint a picture of Jack in his swing in a similar fashion to the artwork in the book.  I thought it would be fun!   

I had Jack's grandfather send me all kinds of pictures of Jack so I could make some sketches. Although I have never met Jack, his personality shined through in the pictures, so I really felt like I got to know him.  He has this impish little grin that I really wanted to capture in the final painting.  I created a final sketch with a few color studies for his grandpa's approval, then I created the final art in oil on illustration board.  Below you can see the finished piece and the work in progress with a several photo references of Jack and the color studies. 

The painting was intended as a Christmas present so I finished and mailed it out in early December.  I hope Jack has a wonderful time opening his present and discovering himself in the painting:)

Merry Christmas Jack!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Fox Picture Book Progress

A while back I told you I was working on another picture book as part of my thesis for AAU.  Well, I thought you might like an update.  In the fall I worked on the storyboard, character development and created 3 "almost" finished illustrations.  This spring I am carrying on and working on two more illustrations...maybe three if I am ambitious enough:-)  I will present all of my work from The Swing, The Fox Went Out On A Chilly Night and The 5 Hungry Mice during the summer to the Final Review Committee at AAU as part of my final assessment for my MFA.

Ok, but that's a few months from now.... for today I thought I'd take you through my process and what I have created so far for "The Fox".

First there was early character development...
These are a bunch of sketches exploring different shapes and styles of the fox.  These are not exhaustive, but give you a sense of exploration.  There is also the "old grey woman" in the story so I added her in too.  You can see a line up of the fox and the old grey woman at the bottom.

After working on character I started doing research into the environment that the fox lives in.  I decided to set the scene in rural England since the British are so famous for hunting foxes.  I thought it would make for quaint scenery that would fit nicely in a picture book and also would be fun to paint! I used the internet to assist me with this and created an "environment board".  You can see that below.

After environment I worked on the storyboard.  I envisioned this as a full 32 page picture book so I had a lot of frames to work with to create some interesting compositions.  I wanted to show the journey the fox had to make to find his supper, the excitement of the chase, and the comfort and safety of being back at his den with his family.  I created several storyboards and received some great feedback from my instructor at AAU.  Below is the storyboard as it is today, but I still see some areas for improvement, so it is by no means final.

Value studies and color studies followed...

I chose three images that I wanted to take to completion for my class work...ultimately I want to take the whole book to completion:-)  Which three would you chose?  It was a tough choice.  Some compositions were working better than others and I wanted to show a range in my compositions with the three that I chose.  I didn't want to chose three that were all basically the same.  I'll skip the value studies and just jump to the color studies of the three I decided to start with....

Then came the painting....that's the fun part!  All of the upfront work helps to make the painting process go so much easier!  I have my references, my character development, my environment reference, my storyboard sketches and color studies....now it was time to enjoy the fruits of my labor and paint:-)

Below are what I am calling almost finished illustrations.  I still have a few small areas to work on and a few critiques from my instructor to address, so you will be seeing an update on these.  But to make this post complete I decided to include the finishes at the state they are right now.

So there it is!  What do you think?  Leave me a comment.  I have on my easel the next two that I am working on, so be on the look out for an update on them as well.  Hope you enjoyed:-)