What is it about wanting animals to be different colors? Pink elephants, blue dogs, purple horses; this is a pattern in the world of cartoons. So here is a green rabbit. What color would you choose for a favorite animal?
Since I do a lot of my work in Corel Painter, I thought I’d share a tip for those who use this software as a freelance illustrator. These tips can be found in the tutorial or online, but I’ll toss it out here just for fun. And to show that using painting software really is painting, not simply pushing buttons for special effects. Today I’ll highlight the Preserve Transparency mode in the Layers Palette. I’ll use one of my recent book cover Illustrations to explain the feature. When painting this “blender house” (for a book on blended families) I relied quite a bit on the Preserve Transparency option.
Clicking on the Preserve Transparency box turns a layer into a mask. Look at the yellow smoothie goo exploding from the blender. I first painted each section of the goo in an opaque gouache (digitally speaking). Specifically, I used one of my custom made gouache brushes to lay down a flat goo shape in yellow. Gouache, by the way, is an opaque watercolor. This is all being done on a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet. Once I had my flat yellow goo blob painted, I clicked on Preserve Transparency. This shape was on its own layer, and that layer was now in Preserved Transparency mode, thus making it a mask. For you pre-digital artists, think Frisket for airbrushing. My yellow goo was then able to be airbrushed using, well, an airbrush (Corel has about every brush imaginable). This feature allows me to airbrush exactly the same way I would have using my Iwata and Frisket on board. The Wacom pen and tablet are incredibly intuitive and this painting is as fun and challenging as traditional art making. It’s an excellent tool for any children’s book illustrator.
I painted the flying kid in my Personal Work portfolio a few weeks ago while pondering dreams about flying. But I’ve never had one of those dreams. I’ve had a recurring dream where I’m on a plane that lacks the power to take off, so the captain simply opts to take the jet on the highway. I’m open to any and all reasonable interpretations of my dream, but I think the traditional flying dream, depicted in my illustration, would be a lot more fun. And if you’ve rushed to fear of flying as the obvious interpretation, forget it. I love flying and all things airplane. I just wish I could dream I was flying without the plane. Enjoy.
A lot of the work in my portfolio as a freelance illustrator is done in Corel Painter 11 using a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet. Last Spring I took a 16 week community college course in Painter 11, taught by an excellent teacher, Jim Leick. This was an invaluable class and has paid for itself many times over. About 90 percent of my assignments since that class have been executed using this software. The best thing about Corel for me is that it is virtually the same as working traditionally. There are short-cuts and tricks of course, but most of the time is spent “painting” in a very traditional manner, employing the same skills I would use on canvas or board. Making art has always allowed taking advantage of aids: frisket, templates, projectors, grids, french curves, cameras, and all sorts of gizmos that have been used for centuries. The kind of computer painting that you see in my portfolio is nothing like pushing a button for a default special effect or gumming up a photo with a bunch of “artistic” filters. This is real painting for real artists. I find it very creative and very fun, and that it genuinely helps my work as a children’s book illustrator. I hope you do too.
Hello again,
I’ve got something special to share. On Tuesday the Illustrator Section of the St. Louis Artists Guild had our monthly meeting. We always have excellent artists speak and share their craft. This past meeting featured Lisa Ober, an outstanding portrait painter in pastels and oils. Lisa also does incredible still life and landscape. Take a look at www.Lisaober.com. You will be delighted by what you see. Thanks Lisa for your great work. You’ve provided inspiration for this freelance illustrator.
Take care until later.
Good afternoon all.
I’m in my studio working on an illustration and some roughs and cleaning up a bit. Cleaning the studio includes dusting my toys, a favorite one being my Eastern Airlines DC3 model. Now I think the Douglas DC3 is about the best designed airplane ever. Do a search and see if you agree. If anyone has ever flown on one, I’d like to hear about it. If you click on The News heading you can leave a comment. Okay, back to dusting, back to drawing and then I’m off to our St. Louis Artists Guild meeting. Until next time.
Ed
Good day everyone. The big news here is that I will be providing big news on my new website. I’ll keep you updated on current projects, styles, and artistic endeavors. I’ll also pass along good stuff that comes my way. Like exhibits, special events, current happenings in the art community and such. I may use this as a place to comment, vent, suggest or entertain. We’ll see. But for now, I welcome you to my new and improved website. I do want to express gratitude to Rampant Creative Group, the developers of this site. They are great to work with and provide a great product. Thank you everyone at Rampant. Check them out at www.TheRampant.com.
I’ll keep you posted.
