All Star Illustration Break Down 2021.

[Norman Morana]

Hi, @moana-maureen Coming up with a good concept can take some practice. Doing the mind map brainstorm can help give you some ideas and push you into directions you might not have thought of. I tend to have a lot of partial ideas going around in my head, so it helps me to put them on paper so I don't have to worry about them or forget the good ones. It takes practice though.

One of the things I ask people when asking for feed back on my concept is "What do you think is going on here?"

Thank you, and I wish you luck along your journey!

[Norman Morana]

@jeremy-ross Thank you! I appreciate that!

[Norman Morana]

Thank you @xin-li and @carlianne !!

[LauraA]

@norman-morana Woah, this is so cool! The first part is especially useful for me, as you have a very divergent imagination and it's fun to see how your ideas develop. I think a star sheriff who keeps the planets in order could have been fun, too! (But like you say, a scene with many elements would a little difficult to portray in one composition.)

I have one question: In your post, you talk about a version on the left with noise and a version on the right without noise. The images posted vertically, though. Are you referring to the next to last and then to the last complete images, or to something else? I also notice that there are also faded lamp posts in the last image.

And lastly, dang it! I need a wife! I think that's where I've gone wrong, as in my experience husbands aren't of much use in critiquing !

[Jonas Zavacky]

@norman-morana You did a lot of work and it shows. Gj and congrats on the win!

[joosterwijk]

@norman-morana Wow, very helpful! Thanks. And great piece of course.

[Frogpunzel]

@norman-morana Thank you for sharing this. I love seeing the process of getting to a finished project, it makes it even better!

[AustinShurtliff]

@Norman-Morana this is really such a great piece! Thanks for sharing all this great info about your process!

[Heather Boyd]

@norman-morana said in All Star Illustration Break Down 2021.:

It was a lot of info to get in one illustration, so it wasn't a route I felt I could go down effectively.

This is golden! I struggle with trying to cram in so much, all the while keeping things simple.

I find it interesting that you start the colour, colour, colour before refining your drawing, that's cool.

The noise is an interesting technique. When your work is large I can't tell, one side noise the other side not. But in the close up I can see.

[Norman Morana]

Hi @lauraa sorry, the layout of the post might be bit confusing. I like to go image, text, image, text. The noise example is in the close up shot of the giants head and upper body. I have noise only on half of the image. It might be hard to tell, but that's not a bad thing. I want the noise to be something you feel, not necessarily see.

In the last two images I wanted to show how I do some small tweaks. Such as the added light posts, glow to the basket, and glow toned down on the people. Those edits being done a day or so later.

I hope that helps clear things up

[Norman Morana]

@heather-boyd

I like to think of myself as a lazy illustrator. If I don't have to draw something to tell the story, I won't lol. In this case, I've been experimenting with not refining my drawing until the very end. I was noticing that I would spend a lot of time on the drawing phase, then once I started adding in all my textures, I'd end up not needing most of my line work. So I've been trying out doing line work last and only where the image needs it. I've been liking the affect so far. Plus I'm zoomed out when drawing, the way most people view the piece.

About the noise, you're right. It's something I want people to feel but not see. If the noise was missing from the image when zoomed out, you'd be able to tell. I think it would be too clean.

I'm glad you and other people are finding this helpful!

[TessaW]

I really love seeing and hearing about people's process, so thanks for sharing! Congratulations on the big win!!!

[Heather Boyd]

@norman-morana You have an eye for the noise. But thanks anyways, if I keep staring I'll go blind.

I need to work on what absolutely needs to go in, goes in and then if room the odd other thing or two. I'll try to remember laziness can still produce good work, what strange irony. lols

Thanks,

[LauraA]

@norman-morana Ah, now I totally see it! I love the addition of the light posts, by the way. It almost looks like they're getting lost in fog.

Thanks for doing this. I love your work!

[aurelia]

@norman-morana said in All Star Illustration Break Down 2021.:

Through almost all of the processes I'm zoomed out on the canvas and rarely ever zoom in to draw anything.

Congratulations on winning the All-Star!! Your work is always so amazing! Your imagination is at another level. And thank you for sharing your process. I've learnt quite a lot of good tips.

I heard a lot the teachers saying not to zoom in too much.

It's funny. I thought I didn't have this problem. Until I really paid attention to the size of my piece in the recording. It's like 20% zoom in Photoshop.

I probably zoomed in around 70%-80% while painting. Can I ask how zoomed out are you when painting yours? Is 20-30% a good number?

[Norman Morana]

Hi @aurelia thank you, I'm glad you've found this helpful!

There isn't really one answer for how zoomed in our out you should be. I wouldn't focus on the percent. That will all change depending on your screen size and canvas size. For instance, my canvas is built to 16.5" x 20.5" at 300 dpi. The scale percent is very small to see the whole image.

For different stages you'll probably want a different zoom percent. When thumbnailing, color, and initials lay ins for shapes and final color, I have it so I can see the whole canvas. This is because I want to see how the marks I'm making will effect the whole image. I'm also keeping in mind how most people will view the image. I really only zoom in further when I have to. I probably zoom in about as much as you see in the giants head close up, above in my first post. That would be when drawing faces or other small details. Same when drawing the people with the lantern. I will also keep zooming out to see how the new marks are effecting the image. I hope that gives you some idea?

Something cool to check out to get you in the mindset might be some impressionist paintings. Degas or Monet for example. When you look closely at their works it can be messy and sometimes look like nonsense squiggles, but when you stand 10 feet away, the whole image comes together. I think most art is meant to be viewed from a slight distance. This will change for picture books or phones, where people's eye will only be a few feet from the image. The scale might be similar to the impressionist paintings example, though.

[aurelia]

@norman-morana Thank you for the answer. This is really interesting, I haven't looked at the fine art enough to really appreciate them. You mentioned impressionism, according to the definition of Wikipedia : they portrayed overall visual effects instead of details. I can see your work has this resemblance.

Hopefully i'll be "cured" from the tendency to get too detailed and look more at the big picture.