#44 SOME UNUSUAL AND USUAL ILLUSTRATIONS – PART 3

A close-up of a reconfigured digital illustration.

For this post, I have an assortment of jobs that range from early in my career to very recent. On the most recent assignment, I am proud to say it was completed digitally and no original artwork exists. Of course, I did not “paint from scratch” on my computer, but I created my image by assembling elements scanned from prior illustrations and “reconfigured” to match in a unified composition.

Usually I work chronologically, but I prefer to start with this recent job. When assembling images from different paintings, unifying my painting is very important for me. Painting over a print certainly helps to “unify” or pull all the elements together so they don’t look like they were painted separately. This job was not “painted over.”

On the computer, I always make sure all the elements have the same light source and I create shadows to help tie everything together, just as if I had painted my illustration on paper.

About a year ago, I created several illustrations for a supermarket, Price Chopper, Inc. It was exciting for me to know that I embraced the computer after so many years. I received a nice note from the art director, and that’s sweet to share also.

This is an example of my final digital artwork with the type in position. I notice that it ended up being changed on the printed label later on.

As usual, the printed labels have lost a lot of detail that was in the original painting.

I did a few other labels for this company.

I have illustrated a lot of dried fruit packaging. Below are ones from an early assignment with General Foods followed by some “Fruit Dinosaurs.”

I glued my marker comp to acetate. That way I could insert different colored backgrounds behind it.

For this assignment, I closely followed the art director’s sketch.

My marker comp.

Early in my career, I received a large assignment for General Foods. It consisted of several illustrations of Fruit Rollup packaging, with two accompanying landscape/crate illustrations. The landscapes were for a “point of purchase” in the store where the dried fruit products would be sold. The art direction was clear as I followed the art director’s sketch very closely.

The landscapes were interesting because they were inserted into another illustration, which needed to resemble a wooden crate. I used markers to create the wood texture on a separate illustration. The landscapes themselves were enjoyable. I loved painting the sunrise and sunset skies so much, that I continued to collect photo reference of those images for many years after.

My job layout for this assignment.

The printed tearsheets show the wood crate texture, which I also illustrated.

One thing I have often lamented, is that I always find great reference “after the fact” when I would have loved having it for a certain job. When I was truly “stuck” while searching for reference, I sometimes used a local company called Warner Research, which the movie studios also used for printed items. An example of something I was looking for once was an image of a banana tree and a camel!

I have been gathering photo reference for thirty years, so I have a rather extensive collection. It consists mostly of food images, but also many other photos that might have been useful for prior jobs if I’d only found them sooner. Examples would be holiday related items, hands, landscapes, and many other still-life subjects.

I received jobs throughout my career that were not food related. The most important part for me on any job was obtaining good reference I could follow.

When I did an illustration for Sparklett’s, I was driving around my neighborhood looking for brick walls that had cracks. Once again, a lot of preliminary work was helpful and the job went smoothly.

The purchase order.

My job layout for an illustration of a crumbling brick wall.

This is an example of my photo reference. I lived in Northridge and there were plenty of cracked walls to find due to the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

This is an example of my marker comp “in progress.” I’m not sure why I abandoned it.

A tearsheet showing the final illustration.

The current FSI inserts in the Sunday newspaper do not carry illustrations very often anymore. Everything is very bland and boring for me, as I look to see if there are any exciting illustrations. Photoshop has truly replaced the need for the style of illustration that was once widespread.

A few years ago, I created a marker comp for a design agency of an agricultural scene. I did not spend much time creating the comp – perhaps only a few hours. However, the subject matter was very useful for me to have. Because the sky on my marker comp wasn’t too exciting, I experimented digitally and utilized the sunrise sky from my General Foods assignment. Of course, I needed to reflect the sky into the winding river, and that was also easy to do on my computer. I also inserted another sky with clouds.

My marker comp with the sky and mountains. This was done in a few hours with markers, colored pencil and touches of acrylic.

I worked with the same designer on some illustrations for Parmalat (milk in a box), and created two, marker comps with breakfast scenes. I’ve always enjoyed working with markers because the looser style helps me to feel more like I’m a “true” illustrator!

I created an illustration for “Professional Write Software” and it involved photographing my husband’s watch, a sandwich, a cup of soda, and inserting a box of the software packaging. I used custom, rubdown letters for the packaging that were made from my photographs. I loved the straw’s reflection in the soda! The watch dial was definitely a challenge.

I had no idea when I illustrated this that later on the sandwich and coke had other uses for me as stock illustration.

Years later, I modified the painting so that it could be “more generic” and useful for stock purposes. I was not utilizing the computer yet for digital techniques – which is ironic since I created images of computer items. I worked with markers to create a mouse and mouse pad and then cut the paper and glued it over the other illustrations.

It was interesting to write on the memo with a pen in perspective!

I have shared both versions – I don’t have a scan of the original painting with the Pro-Write package, but I did have a tearsheet.

I wrote earlier about a menu that I illustrated for Spires restaurants. I found some of the menu’s interior illustrations. These images depict the bright and simple dye technique I used early in my career. There was less photorealism, and the images translated nicely when they were reduced. For the examples below, I simply scanned an old menu – which I had taken from the restaurant because I could not get any samples!

Two of my old projects came together for me on one of my few ventures into the world of licensing and fabric. I was only paid an advance of a few hundred dollars to have at least twenty of my illustrations utilized to create fabric designs with a “deli theme.” The fabric was not a big seller.

My deli fabric – I received and also purchased extra samples. I am still using the towels and pot holders!

Five years later, I was told that a manufacturer was interested in making towels and potholders from the fabric; however, I would not be paid for the use of that fabric. If I chose to let them go ahead with the project, my compensation would be twenty sets of towels, potholders, aprons, napkins and tablecloths.

These french fries came for the Spire’s menu assignment.

Would you want to wear these burgers?

This salad looks very familiar to me!

This was not how I envisioned my water droplets to look. What happened to the highlights?

I decided to allow for it. I enjoyed seeing my artwork on towels! However, when I ran out of the twenty, I had to pay for more. I did that because I felt that it was such a great gift idea for me one year!

Below is a fruit juice label. There’s not much for me to write except the cherries were an “add on” to some other illustrations that were used to create a flavor “medley.”

However, I am sharing these “cropped illustrations” to once again state how sorry I was that the fruit wasn’t completely painted. I wanted to enlarge the peach to indicate how colored pencil was helpful to create the “fuzzy texture” that I was looking for.

These fruit illustrations were for a series of jam labels.

This is a good example of a peaches with the fuzz effect resulting from colored pencil over my dye painting.

I painted three illustrations for a large company where I signed a confidentiality waiver. Since the agency involved is out of business, I’ve decided I could share the illustrations. However, I won’t share invoices, etc. and I’ve cropped the product name off.

There were three, basic flavors of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Below are the job layouts, line drawings, and comps. Those share the process of creating my final paintings, of which I only have a color copy.

My job layout.

The marker comp for strawberry flavor.

A scan of my final painting, which unfortunately was taken from a color photocopy.

The job layout for vanilla flavor.

My first marker comp had two small orchids. For the final art they wanted only one large orchid.

Layout for the chocolate flavor.

It was interesting to come up with so many chocolate curl composition ideas. The client ended up requesting a square of chocolate be added.

These curls looked too brittle, although I was instructed to originally paint them that way.

A scan of my final art taken from a color copy. The curls are now smooth.

On this project, I had a “paid revision” because it was decided on the final painting that the chocolate curls were preferred to be smooth instead of “striated.” I followed instructions and always hated when the final art was completed with a change of mind. Especially when I created a color comp that clearly showed what the illustration would look like!

The very last image I want to share is a digital one that I created for a friend. It is an illustration of her Maltese and I used Photoshop filters and worked over a print. It was a lot of fun and certainly a lot less time than if I had rendered it from a plain, white sheet of watercolor paper!

I no longer lament that I don’t have the tactile sensation of holding a paintbrush anymore. I am far more passionate about the other things in my life, which include music and writing. I have embraced the computer as a wonderful, efficient, time-saving tool.

Creativity can be found in life and one should never rely on technical aspects to be of the most importance. I became technically proficient perhaps, but it is what is inside my heart that is most important for me at this juncture in my life.