Image One Development and Process

I finally decided that I would like to create my illustration using the dry point print technique because i think it will give a really nice effect and the texture the prints give is really nice.

I started out by dry point printing a tree and  camp fire for my first image where Hansel and Gretel are sitting in the forest alone by a lit fire. I scanned these images into Photoshop and changed the contrast and levels so that the images were purely black and white.

I then used a fork to mono print some foliage textures to use as background trees behind the foreground tree.

I added a lighter layer of foliage behind the previous one.

And a lighter layer again.

I tried to make the foliage look like it was getting further and further away by making separate layers lighter by changing the opacity but it didn't work so well.

I tried it again and it worked a little better this time, it kind of gives the effect I wanted.

I printed out the image just to see what it would look like on paper. I really like how this is looking so far as it is giving the creepy effect that I was planning for.

I then printed it out on watercolour paper for later experimentation. 

My plan was to add logs into the image for the characters to be sat on so this is my dry point print of a log which I think looks quite good. I really like the bark effect that I have managed to create.

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to add colour into my images or not so I gave it a go with water colours. I think the fire looks quite nice but the rest of the colour doesn't really work and doesn't give me the dark effect that I wanted. Plus, after a group crit, I realised that colour will not work and to just stick with black and white as it looks to be the best option for what I wanted to achieve.

These small etches are floor textures which I will try out in the image.

This is what the image looked like after I added all of the different elements in and I don't like it one bit. There is way too much going on and the layers all mix together and it just does not work. Even after a lot of messing about with settings in Photoshop I just couldn't seem to get it to work how I wanted it to.

After not succeeding with the first attempt I tried something new. I found a really interesting game online called Limbo and the graphics for it gave me a lot of inspiration for my illustrations so I took a different route.

The game graphics consisted of layers of different opacity images to give the impression of 3D. The characters in the game were simple blcak silhouettes too which I thought looked really creepy. I started off by duplicating the tree I previously printed a few times and changed the opacity of most of them and layered them all together to created a forest scene.

I remembered that when I created the end pages I really liked the inverted effect therefore I inverted these images and I really liked the outcome.

I added the fire.

I wanted to make the image look like the fire was giving off an illuminative light so when I inverted the colours I used the soft rubber to erase one circle of the background to give the effect of a fire light. I think this looks really good but I think it looks too digital. I'm going to carry on creating the image and see how it turns out when I add in the characters.

For my character development for this image I used my niece and nephew as models to draw them from different sitting angles. I found it really difficult to sketch them as they were moving a lot so I drew then with just simple lines onto tracing paper using a pencil. 

This is the process of creating the print of the characters. First I sketched out a small simple image of the character, then I added the correct clothing and hair style to the figure and then dry point printed it and finally scanned it into Photoshop and changed the contrast and level to make the image black and white.

Next I added the characters into the image I earlier created. 

Once I had positioned the characters I then messed around with the tree positioning because I thought it was a little too symmetrical. 

I wasn't quite sure on the layout of my image so came up with a few different compositions. I don't like this at all because it it too square.

I made the background black which I think looks so much better but I am still not 100% happy with it.

I next had the idea of having the illustration in the tree itself. I copied the image over and over and placed them under the illustration to make it look like it was in the tree. The next few images will show this process.

I think this image looks good but I think it is too much for one illustration so I am a little undecided on it. I am going to move onto my next illustration and maybe come back to it once I have figures out my next process.