Boy Pirate Series: From sketches to plasticine illustration

I thought it would be fun to show another step-by-step tutorial on how I work. I have been working on a series of illustrations depicting a "Boy Pirate" and his "mighty ship and "crew". I hope to do 3 or 4 and include them in my portfolio to show my ability to maintain character continuity, depict different viewpoints, perspective, show a range of emotions, and tell a little story through a series of illustrations.

First, I wanted to try my hand at illustrating an extreme viewpoint. So I decided to do a "worm's eye view"  of this "boy pirate". I thought this view point would give him a majestic and grand quality, and hopefully lead the viewer to wonder what is he looking at through those binoculars? And where was he?

First I took a few reference photos by lying on the ground and shooting straight up at my models(OK I used my kiddies, they really like to pose for me).
Then I did a few sketches to work out the perspective, and tinker with the foreshortening. I broke-down the body into simpler geometric shapes and included my perspective lines for reference.

Once I was happy with that sketch, I moved on to sketching a tighter, more detailed  "boy pirate".

Then I started the background. I always smear plasticine onto illustration board first.Iin this case since I knew the sky would be above the "boy pirate", due to the worm's eye view, I didn't need to do an "under painting" and block in my colours, I could just use the sky blue I had mixed and cover the entire surface.

I wanted to give the illustration some dynamic movement and help to bring the eye back again to the central character, so I decided to depict the clouds diagonally across the background and with reflections coming off the underside of the wispy clouds to help show that we are viewing the sky from below. I actually lay down on the dock for a while to study the clouds....OK and relax a bit too. I think it works nicely to gives the piece some energy, and the subtle convergence and divergence of the clouds leads the eye around in an elliptical path back to the center.
Next I added the very bottom of the "ship". I purposely didn't show much of it as I want to viewer to wonder: what type of ship this boy pirate could own?Or was he in the crow's nest?  I also needed to show a portion of it to ground the character.

I then started to form the individual pieces of the character. I usually work from the background, and work forward, but sometimes I like to do a few foreground bits so I can place them on top, as I go, to ensure I'm staying on track with my proportions. And I really like doing toes, so I couldn't resist! :)

It can be a bit tricky when there are a few different layers of plasticine on top of each other, with a foreshortened image. And it can start to look wonky if I don't carefully flatten out, or cut out the plasticine bits that will be directly behind another foreground object.  So, I find it can be useful to have the foreground parts set aside to then be able to trace around them and make the exact cut, so it isn't noticeable.

Here he is, the "boy pirate", after a bunch of tinkering and sculpting, I think he is almost there. I usually like to put it away for a few days and then take a look at it again and tinker a bit more. It lets me look at it with a fresher set of eyes and spot any other problems. 

As always, I'd love any feedback, good and bad, it is always so helpful :)

I also worked on a close-up  of this little "boy pirate" and used it for Illustration Friday this week. I wanted to

show him saying "ARRRRRRR!", but not in a scary, mean way, but in a playful way. Here is the sketch I came up with:

I recently purchased this amazing book by Mark Simon called Facial Expressions of Babies and Teens. It is such a great resource if you need to do facial expressions. And it also shows a few models that have posed  over consecutive years so you can actually see how the face matures with the same child...very helpful stuff! I hope I succeeded in achieving a playful "ARRR". I must have scraped off each feature and started again like a million times??

I had a lot of fun with this illo. as I got to play with the textures of the hat, skin, and handkerchief. I had fun with the extruder to make the teeny feathers on the top of  his pirate hat. Sore thumbs though!  Here he is again, all sneery and cute:

Next up, I am going to do a double page spread that shows his "ship", "first mate" and surroundings. Here is a quick sketch of the layout and a tighter one of the ship and it's crew:

I think I might change the boy pirate's position and have him looking back and pointing so that he is engaged in dialogue with the other little "first mate". I want to show more interaction, so I will probably do a few more sketches to firm up my thoughts.

I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step tutorial of how I work. :) 

And thank-you all for the wonderful comments and for taking the time to pop over to my blog and see what I've been doing...you are all AWESOME!!

A Mouse Cake and a Camouflage, Army Dude Cake!

We had our annual birthday BBQ for our children yesterday, and as with every year, I made special cakes for my kiddies. All 3 of my boys  have anaphylactic food allergies, so this is my special way of making something completely safe and special for them. And it is really fun to see their expressions and the hollers of delight as they bound down the stairs and burst into the kitchen to see what I have made for them.

This year the party also happened to coincide with my Aunt Sharon's birthday as well, so I decided to make a mouse cake for her and my daughter. My aunt collects mice and I thought it would be fun to try to make a cake just like the little mouse in my blog header. I thought it would be funny to have one rubber boot off with a bare foot, just as my daughter would do. I painted the fur using food colour paste, but I had to make this mouse brown as my black paste kept appearing pruple when diluted. Here is a close-up of the head.

She was a fun little mousy to make, and the little girls at the party seems very smitten with here. And my daughter and wonderful aunt liked it too. Yeahh!!!:)

This camouflaged, army dude, creeping on the ground was lots of fun too. I had made a tank last year and this year the boys had said they wanted an army man cake. They are really into history and anything army related, so I thought doing a sniper type guy(minus the gun of course!) creeping along the ground would be interesting. I had to do my research online for this one, and find some photo references of a "ghillie" suit. That is what they call those crazy, hairy-looking, leafy jackets that completely camouflaged them into their surrounding. Hmmm, I learned something new too-haha :)

Here is a picture of him from the back. I even included tread and laces on the boots...I just love details! My fingers and forearms are still a bit sore from pushing all that fondant thru my clay extruder, but I think the effect worked well, and the boys really loved it! A few people said I should open up a cake business (wow-thanks!), but I said it was just a hobby, as I would be absolutely stressed and worried, trying to delivery these cakes-ekk. I am quite the clumsy, goof at times. No thank-you, I think I'll stick to plasticine, as I can always correct that without having to start all over.

Now the kids are already thinking about next year....:) 

IF- Immovable

The sea-battered pirate growled a hearty "ARRRR". He was an "immovable" force guarding his prized treasure.

This is my plasticine illustration for this week's Illustration Friday theme, immovable.  I have been working on a series of illustrations depicting a boy playing pirate, and his grand imagination.  I thought it would fit perfectly with this week's theme. I hope to share the grouping with you all soon. This is the close-up of him with his sneering "ARRRRRR". I tried to make him a little less mean and a bit more cute, I hope I succeeded. His expressionwas a bit too scary and mean at first, so I reworked. Please let me know what you guys think! :)

BTW, tomorrow we're having our annual birthday bash BBQ to celebrate all of my kiddies birthdays( as they were all born in the summer time). So I have been up late for the last few nights working away on some really fun cakes...I can't wait to share them with you! Hopefully I won't be burning the midnight oil to late again tonight :)...

IF- Atmosphere

The atmosphere during story time was electric with the children's wild imaginings of fantastic, underwater worlds.

This is an older plasticine illustration, but a real favorite.  I thought it would be a fun fit for this week's IF theme atmosphere.

:)

Dog Days of Summer

"Dog Days...First jump off the dock with the encouragement of big brother"

I arrived home yesterday evening after 4 days of awesome productivity at my cottage! I worked my butt off and managed to complete 3 new plasticine illustrations, and start on the background of a 4th!! Yipeeee!! It was so nice to really get into the groove and get lost in my work for hours at a time with the music cranked and the creativity flowing. My wonderful hubby held down the fort and was sweet to send updates via text message so I didn't feel too out of the loop.

The illustration you see above was based on this months "Dog Days" theme over at the We Love To Illustrate for Children Group Blog . It is so fabulous of the ladies over there to open up the floor to all of there followers, and encourage their participation...such fun. And it is really cool to see everybody's interpretation of this month's theme.

I hope you like it! Dog Days made me think of those hot summer days at the cottage watching the kids learn new things like taking that very first leap off the dock into the deeper water. It is aways so heart-warming to see siblings offer encouragement and support to the younger ones. It is a universal " moment" I know all parents of multiple kiddies savour, as it often only last a little while and then they are back to bugging each other (geesh).

Snorkel boy, bird feeding frenzy...and other random cottage snaps...

After beautiful sunny weather all week at the cottage, we were hit with torrential rain on Sunday...all day. After trying to entertain the kiddies inside for the day with baking, crafts etc, we decided to head home a day early :(.  We had a menagerie of birdy families visit our dock...maybe they spread the word to each other that our dock was "the spot" for free cracker and bread crumbs??? We had ducks, mergansers( see above) and  even one lone ducky who was brave enough to swim around with my boys in the water.

 

My second youngest amazed us all, he is only 4 yrs. old, but he was swimming all around the bay with my hubby in his snorkel, mask and fins....my little fishy.

I got a cool photo of this gigantic dragon fly. Not to bad for a point and shoot camera....oh I can't wait to buy a Canon DSLR soon. This little guy would make a great sketch!

I also snapped a photo of the flower box on the boathouse....flowers in full bloom are so pretty.

We had a great time at the cottage and I am very lucky( thank-you my most wonderful hubby!!) to be going up again this Friday for a few day SOLO...yes that's right...by MYSELF!!! Yippeee! My hubby is "manning the fort" for a few days to let me go up north for some uninterrupted "art time" to get some portfolio pieces finished. Then I can hopefully get my website up and running??!!

Rachelle Anne Miller Giveaway!!!

Rachelle Anne Miller is having an adorable giveaway over at her blog here. She is an amazing illustrator (one of my favorites actually) and does the most adorable artwork...if you haven't seen her work before then here is your chance! Hurray on over to her blog as she is offering a great giveaway until this Wednesday...if you comment on her blog you get a chance to win one of these super cute backpacks from Dante Beatrix.  Aren't they so adorable? And they come with the most hilarious names! Enjoy!