Sunday, September 2, 2012

Illustration Friday: Identical



I have this really cool book on facial expressions, with about a hundred pictures of maybe sixty or seventy people--of all ages and types making all sorts of different expressions. It's really fun to draw series of them. Can you tell this is the same person? (I'm not sure that I can).

This is also a new technique--one I'm not sure that I will ever do again. It's a gouache resist with black ink stroked over it, and then the whole thing run under the sink when it's dry to wash the ink-over-gouache off. It's a bit crude, and wasteful, I think, of gouache, but has some interesting possibilities. But the thing about new techniques is that there's a learning curve, and only by working with it again and again can you gain any kind of control over it. Things can be pretty dreadful at first, but I think I'll post anyway, just as a demonstration (maybe even just to myself).

Nope. I couldn't live with that. So I added some more pen work, and feel much better. (That's the one on top.) So I reckon I'll be trying this again.

Okay, so the third person didn't work. Snip. Enough of this already.....

4 comments:

  1. I like these...I also agree that gouache resist is wasteful. I don't think the results are worth it...for my style anyway...but good to experiment (I probably didn't go far enough with it!)

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  2. It's great to experiment, even once! I just started to think I'm staying too much in my comfort zone... But the top one is great, awesome expressions and good feeling, like they are friends or sisters - even if it is the same person!

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  3. Haha, well. I think it was a cool exercise. And I think you got some really cool images out of it. I would not have initially guessed these were all the same person, but it is also easy to believe that is true. That book sounds cool!

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  4. I like the technique...it has the look of a wood-cut. I remember experimenting with this technique before - maybe I will give it another try, too. Thanks for the inspiration!

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