Illustrapedia Challenge for February

Well...after a long hiatus from the drawing board, I've got myself back into the saddle again.

The February challenge for Illustradedia on Flickr was "Clowns", and I thought that was a good exercise to blow the cobwebs away and get back into the creative frame of mind.

For some reason, I did not have to think much about the idea. The "scene" pretty much popped into my head, so after only doodling a couple of thumbnails, I already knew what I wanted. Strange that...sometimes you can be rattling your brain for ages for an idea...other times, it's right there at the front of your noodle!

Anyway, here's the picture (click on the image to view the bigger size on Flickr)...



My next post will be describing a new project I'm starting on...check back soon!!

Illustrapedia Challenge for October (part 2)

I've managed to finish the Illustrapeda October challenge ("Halloween") with plenty of time to spare...



The idea of the story behind the image remains the same (read my last post or click on the image above to go to Flickr page).

As far as the approach for this image, I decided to go with a more traditional inked version (with more hatching and shading than I normally do). The colours were added in Photoshop. I wanted the ink texturing to show through more, so I refrained from adding any sort of shadows or shading in Photoshop, I just added the colours and highlights. This also helped to give the image a darker look, considering it's subject matter!

Illustrapedia Challenge for October

The next challenge (October) for Illustrapedia is "Halloween". I thought this might be a bit tricky, because it's one of those conventional events of the year, and all too easy to draw some conventional stuff.

So, I've tried to think of a theme (as I usually do with these challenges) that centres around a story. Nothing concrete yet, but I had this idea about a boy (who may be good or bad) who invents a machine for Halloween. As I haven't decided the boy's true intentions (good or evil), I therefore haven't decided the purpose of this machine. All I know is that it involves the real witches, ghosts and ghouls of Halloween being invited to try the machine out.

The basic thumbnails of my idea:


I like drawing machinery, so this was a bit of an excuse to include some type of bizarre contraption! I still need to tweak the machine a bit. For instance, I'm not sure if the main body (box) should actually be a coffin. And I want to add some more cogs, levers, etc. The idea of a clock (coupled with the cogs) seems quite good, which shows the approach of the witching hour!

A to Z Alphabet

Well, I managed to finish my "Y" image for the A to Z Alphabet group on Flickr.




Unfortuneately, I missed the August and September deadines for the other Flickr group, Illustrapedia. However, I did a little sort of "cheat" picture and submitted it late (last night) which combined the two topics (Aliens and Musicians).




And yes...it was coloured using an old set of Rexel Colouring (and Painting) crayons that I stil had in my cupboard. Quite weird to go back to traditional methods without the use of the good ol' "undo" feature of Photoshop!!

Anyway, I've got (hopefully) quite a nice idea for the October topic - "Halloween". Onward...

Flickr groups

I've posted a few images to the Flickr groups I joined after doing the "Freddie and the Fairy" competition back in May. As I mentioned in my July post, those groups are "Illustrapedia", "Illustration Collaboration" and the new spin-off group from the latter, called "A To Z Alphabet".

The June challenge for "Illustrapedia" was Dinosaurs and the July challenge was Witches (click on the images to see full sets on Flickr)...





I'm going to be concentrating most of my effort for the next month on my "Y" image for the "A To Z Alphabet" book. Not that easy thinking of suitable "Y" words (child friendly, good use of phonics, etc.), but I've got a thumbnail sketch of possible choices:



I'm working on the composition of the image now. Oh...I've subsequently found out that there is no such creature as a Yardbird!! Shame. I could try drawing Eric Clapton instead!

My good wife felt that my Yak looked more like a goat. I assured her that it was only a sketch and either my good friend, Google, or one of my kids' animal encyclopedia's will be providing me with a better reference from which to draw :)

So...what's been happening?

Since my last post, way back in April, there have been several exciting distractions. In the April 9 edition of the Telegraph, there was an article describing a competition being held by the Telegraph and Waterstones to find an unpublished illustrator for Julia Donaldson's next book, "Freddie and the Fairy".

The competition, called "Picture This", was open to any unpublished illustrators (as far as children's books, that is) to come up with full-colour character sketches for the main characters (Freddie, the Fairy and the Fairy Queen), some animal sketches and a full-colour illustration for one of the spreads. The complete story is available online to read (click on Picture This).

The deadline was 18 May, so I dropped all (except pencils, pens and the like!) and started getting busy! I only just made it...infact, my wife and brother-in-law were kind enough to drive down to the Waterstones offices and hand-deliver my pictures, as I was too late to post them!

Anyway, here's my interpretation of Bessie-Belle:



You can see my full set of "Freddie and the Fairy" images in my Flickr Photostream or at www.cladge.com.

A group was started on Flickr as the competition came to a close and the entrants started waiting to see who had been picked for the "final 6" (I wasn't, BTW!). I added my pictures to the Flickr Picture This group, and got involved with a couple of other spin-off groups, set up by like-minded artistic individuals:

1. Illustrapedia - a group involved in producing artwork on a monthly basis for topics chosen by the group. June's topic was "dinosaurs"...you can see the entries here ---> slideshow. See if you can spot mine!! This month's challenge is "witches".
2. Illustration collaboration - a group dedicated to producing some artist-driven children's books. Currently, I am involved in contributing to an "A to Z" book...I've got the letter "Y"...hmmm...tricky.

So, somewhere between this lost, I still hope to get more "Our Digital Life" pictures finished. Hmph...wishful thinking!