The last class: Advanced Illustration

Last semester I took the advanced illustration class at UVU taught by Howard Fullmer. It was my last class :) We were tasked with creating 4 illustrations of our choice that needed to be portfolio quality and have a theme of some kind. I decided to create 4 background illustrations for a speech therapy app that I'm collaborating on with an awesome speech therapist. The idea is that each image would be part of an individual app focused on a letter that some kids have trouble saying. So I worked on letters K, D, G, and T.

This was just too much fun! I filled each illustration with things that start with the sound the kid is working on. In the order shown below: 

*Candy Cave

*Dark Dinosaur Desert 

*Garage

*Toy box

It was kind of challenging to find an interesting composition with this vertical orientation of the mobile phone. So I just stuck with a one point perspective for each of them. I wanted to give the illusion of depth for each one so that the little avatar that the player would interact with would seem to float around in space as they tilt the phone. 

I did a couple of thumbnails for each of them until I found the right composition. This is the stage I want to figure everything out as far as drawing, proportion, line quality, composition, and perspective. Then I did the full size line drawings (below). They were all created using a zebra ball point pen on tracing paper. I spent around 2-3 hours on each. I really didn't focus on getting everything perfect in this stage because I knew I could fix it in the computer later. 

 When I found one that worked, I scanned them into the computer. I digitally painted the values (below) using a Wacom drawing tablet with Adobe Photoshop CC and Corel Painter 2015. I started out by making the line drawing on a multiply layer and the canvas a mid tone (127) value. I then used a screen layer for the light values and a multiply layer for the dark values. I color picked the current value I want to paint and chose the appropriate layer (screen or multiply). I also referenced a LOT of photos with the same lighting situation to help me figure out a solution to each illustration.

The last step in the process is adding color and creating the player's avatars (below). I simply added a overlay or colorize layer over the values to create the colors. At this point I usually just have one layer to work out the color and then I flattened everything, then add the details at the end. I also created a happy and sad avatar, a "chase monster" and a goal letter. These are seen at the bottom of these illustrations.

These apps are still in the beta testing phase. I can't wait to see them in action.