A Long Overdue Update
While majoring in the art and design world back in college I was no stranger to lengthy projects. I mean, sometimes we would even spend a whole month on something. A month! I’d say the longest time I spent on a project was designing and painting a set for KU’s theater department, but even that is dwarfed by what I spent the majority of the last year doing (I didn’t quite make it to 9 months on this baby, but I can’t complain about delivering a couple weeks early). So you want to hear about what I’ve been up to? To read about the process pre-final color art then swing by my earlier post here, and keep on moving those eyes downward for what the process was like once I was finally able to pick up my trusted colored pencils.
Fact #1 – Total amount of time spent: 591hrs 27min Fact #2 – Total number of colored pencils used to completion: 63 Fact #3 – Lauren needs a new medium
Don’t get me wrong, I love colored pencils and feel that even after all of these years of work with them I am continuing to learn more about the medium and how to attain what I am trying to push them to create. My hand is sore, my callouses are enlarged, my left forearm muscles might be more impressive than my right bicep, but I don’t regret the choice to put colored pencils to use for this book because of the level of detail they allow me to achieve in my attempts to create realistic work. Ok, maybe every once in a while when I was coloring a large expanse of the sky or ground I wished I had the paint bucket tool to quickly move past the step, but you have to go through the process in order to learn these things.
My Goal – Evolve my style so that I have more than just realism in my repertoire
As I continue to draw portraits these same muscles will be exercised, but in my free time between projects I am going to turn to the computer world that I have been avoiding as a “fine artist.” In other words, Photoshop scares me. What the heck do all these options mean? How do I just change this color? Can I juxtapose these two images together! [Throws computer out window]
This is what I am assuming the learning process will be like for me, and my imagination that created this is the reason I have simply avoided the tool all together. That and the price tag, but mostly the assumption that it is just a challenge that I don’t want to confront. But not anymore! As I start sketching out some of the ideas bouncing around in my mind I am going to try to develop a new style that will probably be inspired by the comic book artists who create work that I could stare at for hours (let’s face it, I am not going to tackle painting like Alex Ross has).
This could go horribly, but I’m going to switch the optimist side of my brain on and hope for the best. Come back and see what I’m up to!
Until next time! Lauren H. Follow @BewareOfTrees