Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Illustration » Tutorials

Bigfoot Poster Tutorial

moonape — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:07:04 +0000

You might remember Oregon-based Peruvian designer and illustrator, Santiago Uceda’s poster art as featured in a previous Ape on the Moon post here. What he’s great at is the hand-drawn, rough style of his artwork.

Santiago is back to share his step by step work process behind one of his recent posters, featuring the Portland hipster Bigfoot. Enjoy!

Materials: Pencil; Sumi ink and brush; Block printing ink; Roller; Plexiglass; X-acto knife.

1. Ideas

The challenge was to create a poster for a Society6 Portland poster series based on fun facts centering around Portland in Oregon.

One thing that is often associated with the Northwest is the mythical creature Bigfoot. Bigfoot is not necessarily associated with Portland, but I figured this is a place he would call home if he were given the chance.

2. Sketch

I always start with a light pencil or blue pencil sketch and then ink that. I don’t do to many preliminary sketches. There’s usually a very rough sketch just to get the idea and placement across and after that is final.

I sketch & ink the different elements separately and then assemble and color them in Photoshop.

I wasn’t quite happy with the first Bigfoot, so I drew another one on a separate piece of paper and then collaged them together.

3. Color and Texture

I create my textures with mono-prints or with ink. For the river texture I made some wavy textures with mono-prints. I rolled some ink onto the Plexiglas and made some wavy strokes with a brush.

I then transferred the ink to a piece of sketchbook paper.

Colors don’t really matter at this point, I usually change colors in Photoshop.

For the clouds I cut out some cloud shapes, rolled ink on the Plexi, put clouds face down on ink, place another piece of paper on top of cloud, cut out and then scribble on top of that sheet. The scribbles are transferred onto the cloud cut outs.

The bridge and hand lettering were done with Sumi ink and brush..

Once it’s all been scanned and composed in Photoshop, I start playing with color by applying color to individual layers with layer effects.

The multi-colored rain was a bit much so I toned it down and ended up with a more subdued palette.

And there you have it!

Excellent, thank you Santiago!

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Ben the Illustrator Pattern

moonape — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:30:43 +0000

A few months ago I featured a selection of Ben the Illustrator’s special vector pattern illustrations.

In an interview-style tutorial, Ben is back to teach us how he makes them, showcasing one of his brand new patterns in detail.

For those that don’t know about him, Ben the Illustrator (Ben O’Brien) is based in Cornwall, England, working on numerous projects with the help of his wife Fi. Ben always seems to be busy on something intriguing, so I’m very pleased he and Fi have found a bit of time to share their digital design expertise with us.

I’ve asked Ben a few questions as part of this pattern tutorial.

Tools required: Pencil, paper, scanner, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

How do you come up with a new idea for a pattern?

It’s pretty much the same as an idea for a regular illustration, it’s a matter of our mood, something that’s inspired us, or something we’ve not done before. Pretty much everything I create along with Fi is landscapes, from the natural to the man-made, whether it’s for a pattern or an illustration, for a client, for fun or for our homewares products.

We will generally have the theme or subject matter before we’ve figured out how it will work as a pattern. You could flip that and set out to think of something that will work as a pattern, but I relish the challenge of creating these patterns, it’s not something I have been doing for a long time, probably around a year now.

The key things I’ve learnt is to start fairly simple. Playing with crazy angles or textures and trying to get them to repeat, can be a nightmare if you’ve not got your head around the basics. So we’ve done repeating patterns of mountain ranges, terraced houses, cable cars and sea otters, but we didn’t have one of perhaps one of our favourites views, hills, trees, lakes and cabins! So now we’re creating one…

Firstly, it’s often easier to work within a square, it will make your pattern a lot tidier once repeated (although a pattern will still work if the single tile is rectangular).

You’re going to draw your artwork, your one single pattern tile inside a square.

The golden rule is that if a line goes off an edge, then it has to continue in from the opposite edge. So if you draw a flat piece of land, and it goes off the right edge of the square, then that line has to continue into the left side of the tile. So in Figure 1, you can see the 7 lines that go off the right hand side, all come in again on the left.

Figure 1:

The same applies to the 4 lines that go off the top and bottom of the square.

To get these lines to always meet perfectly you could draw a measured grid, or work on a lightbox with a grid underneath.

If you have a line heading for an edge, but you don’t want to bring it into the other side, make sure it concludes right at the edge, like points A and B on the right hand side of the drawing. The artwork in the middle of the square can do whatever you want it to!

What steps do you take before colouring the illustration?

I might clean-up the drawing a bit, especially if I’ve draw in my own guidelines or rulers all over it, then scan it in to the computer.

I’ll take it into Photoshop first, crop the page to the exact requirement and test the repeat, by just copying and pasting the square once on either side and above and below. The quickest, neatest way to do this is to ensure the layer you are drawing on isn’t a background layer (if so, double click the padlock in the layers panel then click OK to make it a normal layer).

Click ‘Image > Canvas Size’ and enlarge both dimensions by 300%.

Select the ‘Move’ tool (the black select arrow) and hold down ‘Shift’ and ‘Alt’ while dragging the image to one side, it will pull a copy of the image and keep it in-line, snapping into place along an edge. Repeat the copy/drag until you’ve got a cross, which will enable you to see every side of the original, central image tile, with repeats on every side as in Figure 2.

Figure 2:

What is involved in adding colour and the finishing touches to the work?

I take it straight over to Illustrator and we experiment and play with it. I’ve always got the colour scheme and mood of the piece in my head when I get started, and I’ll already know the level of details I’m going to put in there, whether it’s a quick and free and easy doodle or a precise time-consuming and exact design.

In Illustrator you can fine-tune those pattern elements, the lines that will go off the sides to make the repeat work, use the rulers and grids and everything else to achieve the precision required of a good repeating pattern.

Figure 3 shows the final, coloured single pattern tile.

Figure 3:

Below is the completed repeated wallpaper pattern, done and dusted!

I’m going to get started on my repeating pattern right now, thanks Ben!

MoonApe

Tod Kapke Illustration

moonape — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:22:14 +0000

Based in Denver, Colorado, Tod Kapke has been good enough to provide a close insight into his mesmerizing photography-based illustrations. His work demonstrates an artistic direction that is both hard-hitting, amusing (often in a dark way!) and extremely innovative. This post looks into how he got into the work he does and how he does it.

How did you get into the work you do?

‘I have always been interested in becoming an artist in some sort of way or another. I had a lot of interest in painting, drawing and printmaking in junior high/high school. I ended up taking some photography classes in school and really liked the immediacy of it, not to mention being able to play with lots of nifty gadgets. I was able to get the level of detail and texture that I could not get with my painting and printmaking. I spent a lot of time looking at magazines and time at the library researching artists. I ended up running across artists like Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Joel Peter-Witkin, Matt Mahurin, John Heartfield, Hans Neleman and comic works by Bill Sienkiewicz. Something just sort of clicked’.

‘I started messing around with assemblage type work, building really crappy sets, abusing my friends as models taking pictures of them, printing them out, painting on them and then rephotographing them again. I had no idea how these artists were creating the work they did so i just started to experiment. I ended up winning some national arts awards in high school for some of my photo work. I thought it was a sign, so I went off to art school with some friends who were also attending.

It was more a commercial art school. I realized quickly that my work did not fit in with the school. I was told by a few of the faculty members that I should think about going to different school (might of had to something to do with the shellaced bird head attached to one of my pieces that I turned in, I spent a lot of time arguing with faculty and students whether my work was photography or not).

I actually learned a lot about using real studio equipment and camera’s at the school. At this time i got a chance to start doing photography and art directing for a snowboard clothing company.

I ended up ditching school to start working. We pretty much go free reign to do whatever we wanted to do and learned way more about the real world than I would ever had in school. I started experimenting more and more with assembled type work. I really started being influenced by vintage commercial type illustrators and design.

I really wanted to be a commercial photographer but would get commercial type jobs (I.e. shoot this one white seamless) and just hate doing them. The idea that i was going up against these guys with huge studios with assistants and tons of really expensive gadgets did not seem feasible to me. I realized that i liked doing this illustrative type work. i was more interested in illustration/design than photography so I began to push myself in that direction’.

Can you describe your work process and tools used for your compositions?

‘It is hard for me to really pin down how I do my stuff. it really changes for each piece. Sometimes it could be toy cameras, digital, or large format (or all three), homemade lighting rigs, studio strobes, natural light, or just a plain flash light. This is not to mention all the props that need to be built and sourced, costumes made, backgrounds or sets made and so on.

My work process really varies. It really depends on money, time, the complexity of the idea, the props that I can find or build. Sometimes it might be completely done on the computer, other times I try to build the whole thing as a large set. if I spend too much time in front of the computer on one I will usually freak out and make myself do the next one completely by hand’.

This is a behind the scenes run through of an illustration Tod has just completed for Bicycling Magazine. The copy he had to work with was: “build yourself up, time off from riding can be a good thing-here’s how to come back stronger than ever”.

Tod’s idea was as follows, with 5 days to the deadline:

‘I try really hard to not self edit during the idea phase. I get a rough idea of how I might do this. Usually I will just get the idea and then figure out how to execute it.

I wanted a toy bike for the cyclist to be riding. Something that looks real but is obviously a toy. I also like the whimsical aspect of the toy. I searched and found nothing at any toy stores. I found what I wanted on eBay and had it sent to me overnight. I also needed to figure out how i was going to get this scene on the models head?? I did not want to do all that in Photoshop.

I started to build some sort of bald cap and was then going to manually apply all of the trees and grass to his head. I decided that this was too time consuming. I decided on getting a foam head to build the mini set on. I went to the model store to build some scenic supplies. I also needed to find some clothing for the cyclist to wear. I have a collection of old wool jerseys. I wanted more of a vintage feel to it’.

Here is a working of the head in progress, and the model’s head, which was added in later:

The an image of a model on the bike was required, as was a snapshot of the toy bike:

‘I finally had all of the elements shot and it was time to start to composite them on the computer‘:

Here is the final image, with added clouds, a background and cotton ball clouds from a previous shoot. Lighting was added with a bit of texture and colour balance:

Apart from this and another feature for Bicycling Magazine, Tod is also planning to get started on a small book. ‘I am not sure of the exact type yet, sort of a children’s book. It was project that I started many moons ago with a long time friend. It began life as a short animated film. The film is about a small robot that dreams of being a boy. The story is something that I cannot get out of my head and it is not going to be finished ever as a film. I decided to finish it as a story book. Maybe it will motivate me to finish it as a film that way!’

Aaron Blecha Graphic Novel

moonape — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:12:48 +0000

Having seen Aaron Blecha’s exciting portfolio, I was keen to find out more about him and his work process. Aaron is known for providing artwork for various children’s books and folk tales, including the Three Little Pigs. His dynamic, vivid and ultimately very funny character creations are what stand out for me.

London-based Aaron was kind enough to answer some questions about his work and provide some exciting ‘behind the scenes’ insight into his most recent graphic novel, the grotesquely delightful The Ugly Duckling.

What kind of training have you had in illustration up until now?

I haven’t had too much of a formal illustration education. I’ve just always been a drawer. I went to the University of Wisconsin, but they didn’t have much to offer for commercial illustrators at the time so I was steered into graphic design.

It wasn’t until I landed in San Francisco that I started to pick up the pencil again and got involved in animation and character design.

Who is the person that most inspires you?

I don’t know if there’s just one person, but as a kid I loved Mercer Mayer. He’s not as well known as Maurice Sendak, but his goofy, detailed monsters and adventurous stories really grabbed me.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of graphic novels, especially Guy Davis in the BPRD books and Lewis Trondheim’s French series, Dungeon. Both have such a unique way at looking at monsters and characters done with loose lines.

I come from a family of teachers, so I have to say that teachers also are an inspiration to me. Whenever I get to New York City, I draw with my brother’s class. He has one of the toughest jobs ever! I’m just hopeful that a kid in school will pick up one of my books in the library and be inspired like I was.

How did you get into drawing for graphic novels and is it hard work?

After working in animation, I wanted to guide myself into the publishing world. I started with a creepy graphic novel based on the Three Little Pigs a year or so ago.

It’s super fun to create your entire world on paper but also very time consuming to do everything from character design to end coloring, so I probably won’t continue with them exclusively. I’m moving more into children’s picture and chapter books. But if the right story comes along…

Can you describe your work process in drawing up and illustrating the recent ugly duckling graphic novel?

I start out sketching and designing the main characters in the story:

I use Col-Erase Blue Pencils for all my sketching. I got hooked on them when working in animation. They sharpen to a fine point and don’t smudge. Once the characters are approved, I storyboard the book out very loosely, to see if the action and the scenes are flowing together:

After that I lightly sketch out the finals on Strathmore Bristol Vellum Paper and ink it in with a variety of pens. My favorites right now are Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. However, I’m always on the look out for better ways to ink:

The inked work is then coloured digitally in Photoshop:

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve just finished my third graphic novel based on fairy and folk tales. It’s Paul Bunyan: a character of old American Tall Tales. I’m also illustrating a few chapter books for Penguin that will be coming out next year.

Looking forward to it, Aaron!

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