So, time to go further than the line work, and see what else the tools to my disposal can do, looking in the the tonality, and other aspects of imagery. I decided to continue my work with the aboriginal tribe, but rather than just copy a image from google over and over like i did last time, i decided to make my own character and work from that. With that i made "Alira".
Alira concept and first image
Brush pen, fine liner and pencil crayon
So based on the various indigenous tribe photographs i found over this project, i was able to create a character that would seem to fit in that environment. And for the first image, i put her in a dynamic pose, experimenting with the use of line to create form and shadow to the body, whilst also pushing the brush pen with the hair, scratching it and being rough to give that uneven fill that kinda helps the hair to look like hair. I think this is because of the gaps that consist of stray fibre strokes, and looks like separate hairs. I kinda wanted to do a little more than draw the character in poses though, something that puts her in a scene or environment.
I started to thumbnail scene ideas, that somehow managed to turn in to a story of vengeance, which was way too far considering time constraints, so i just started to create imagery that concentrated on showing the everyday life of the tribe.
Starting with religion i guess. The scene depicts Alira's family onlooking a mural. The image consists of ink wash, tipex, felt pens and fine liner, so a lot of ink lets say. The ink wash alone wasn't really capturing the rocky aspect of the rock face, so i crumpled the paper and it worked quite well. Other than that the other mediums overlay really nicely. The second image is just felt pen and finen liner with a blue pencil crayon wash, with the image concentrating on community. I must admit, im not too keen, the heavy use of felt just doesn't work, looks too blocky, i probably should have used a touch of water to wash over the ink and have the lines merge somewhat. Off topic, i kinda like the composition of both these scenes, very centred.
For the first scenario here i decided to show the home of Alira, a straw hut, and for this it seemed like a perfect opportunity to whip out the ol fine liners again. The fine lines would be perfect to build and also connotes the layers of straw. I quite liked how the hut was looking, so i opted not to build the characters in the scene, as they aren't the focal point. The second scene is of the son having a little splash. Compositionally i probably should have put the boy as a closer subject, but the watercolours were great for building tone, and thanks to the range of colour, they allowed for a fully coloured proper scene. The fading in areas where the pigment is lacking is also very interesting, somewhat pushing the eye inward to the full, darker areas.
So, sadly, due to time constraints, i had to dial it down and revert to smaller images, simply drawing a couple of facial expressions for Alira, one with pencil and the other pen. Ive already stated that i love to build tone with little lines, but the standout from these images is the white of the eyes on the ink face, its funny how the section with the least work to it can grab you like that, guess thats negative space in action. Moving on i drew Alira doing a bit of bow firing, possibly on a hunt, but the medium is one i haven't used in quite a while, pencil for line work and smudging some graphite to build tone. Its really nice and i should probably work with it again, the gradation you can achieve from light to dark is incredibly handy.
These are some tasty pages if i don't mind saying so myself. Firstly utilising a blue pencil crayon was a great medium, the tones build up like a dream, but it also helps the image as its own scene. This is probably my favourite of all my outcomes for this task because it manages to tell the story of a scene without an actual scene... if that makes sense, you just know Alira is submerged in water thanks to the colour, low angle view and floaty clothing. The next image is pretty cool, a mix of felt pen and brush pen, both done in block and going hand in hand, not much tonal work, but a nice mix of mediums. The next image is a bit of a further stretch, being more about shape than tone, but the garb that was the cutout, does consist of the use of highlighters for the strokes, and thanks to the even, downward strokes, doers give somewhat of a fabric finish. The final image concentrates mainly on the use of individual pencil strokes to show the flow of hair, rather successful id say.
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