The task for this workshop was to create an a3 illustration using gouache, where we looked at examples of Laura Callaghan’s work. This was my first time using gouache, so I was rather worried as I don’t enjoy painting due to the texture and inconsistency of application. I started off by thinking about how I could create a design that had a character in it but didn’t detract from the background. I started sketching some quick character ideas that I had, using a long nose as a prominent facial feature, and two curly ponytails as I wanted there to be a link to my childhood theme. I came up with a few ideas for the characters outfit, however I ultimately settled on keeping her all one colour as I thought that would match my illustration best. I began thinking about some of my memories as a kid, such as going round supermarket shelves and always being too tall to reach any of the items on the shelves, as well as always wanting to get all of the sugary foods, but not being allowed. I drew my idea, of a kid being surrounded by all of these unhealthy foods at her level on the floor, and all of these other nameless items on the shelves above. I had initially started to complete the shelves in my sketchbook, but as I had other ideas for a project surrounding food shelves, I thought that it would be a better use of my time to figure out what colours I wanted to use.
I wanted to learn from my last experience of colour, where I used far too many with too little thought, so I wanted to do some research first. I looked at some of Laura Callaghan’s illustrations, and came across one also in a supermarket, however I was not planning on using line work for my piece. I also found this old illustration of Harry Olsen’s that I really liked, as well as Jacqueline Colley’s single shelf. I really liked the risograph look of Jacqueline Colley’s, as well as how limited her palette even though it was all so well spaced out. I decided I wanted to use risograph inspired colours, which was a decision that I definitively decided on. I also loved how Nicolaas Kotzé’s work didn’t look like a limited colour palette in a negative way as it was all so well spaced out and planned.
- Laura Callaghan for zeitmagazin
- Harry Olsen from ‘Seeing is Believing’
- Jacqueline Colley’s ‘Supermarket Sweep’
- Nicolaas Kotzé’s ‘Survival Kit’
I drew out a large a3 sketch of what I wanted the final piece to look like, using the black marker from Fru’s workshop. I had originally planned to paint over the top of it, but realised quickly it wouldn’t work due to the density and bleeding of the marker. I scanned my drawing and edited it so that the white background and back of the items were removed. I then started to colour map on procreate, as it was the easiest way to figure out where I wanted the colours to go, and see if they were all evenly spaced so that one colour didn’t dominate or became over represented.I was happy with this, and decided to progress on to the final painting.
I pinned my marker drawing to a window and traced over it in pencil, correcting some more wonky parts or uneven spacing. I now had a pencil underlay that could guide me as to where I wanted the colour to go. I had to mix all of my colours, which was also a new experience, as I was using the studio’s gouache that had limited colour options. I wanted to work colour by colour, rather than product by product in order to avoid the paint drying out. I used a printed out version of my digital colour mapping and set to work. Quite honestly, I hated the process quite vehemently, it was messy and difficult to accurately place my lines with a paintbrush, and the most frustrating part was the inconsistency and the continual dipping back into the paint. I desperately missed pens that you could draw with, without refilling. I considered giving up quite a few times, but I managed to get through it after spending multiple hermit days over the break on it (don’t recommend). Although I didn’t like it at the time, it was quite nice to see the photo progression as I finished a colour. I hadn’t mapped out what colours I wanted the foods beside the child to be, and it was only a decision that I made whilst doing the blue that it would be in the same colours. I missed more than a few spots in my initial colour layers, so I did have to keep reactivating the gouache in order to fix it, but luckily I had just enough. After some discussion, I decided to paint the child the warm yellow that I used for the items, as it made it a happier illustration, and avoided problems such as blue = sad, red = horror. Although I did manage to complete this task, I don’t think gouache is something I will be using for later tasks, as it was more stress than happiness of completing it.
Although I was reasonably happy with my final illustration, I did want to do a brief experiment where I changed the size of the character to see how that changed the feel of the illustration. I turned the whole background tones to be red and pink, which left it feeling very ominous at the different scales. Whilst it is good to digitally experiment, this one definitely made my illustration look worse.
