I’m so excited that book 2 “Humans’ Being” a peoples picture book, has just been launched as Hardcover by NoooBooks.

This series of Abstract Sumi-e Artbooks, explore Human energies in ink and have a short uplifting hand-lettered humorous tale.

I’m currently splashing the ink about for the next one and getting close to the end stages for Schroom…

Has it been more than 2 1/2 years already Gouache????, Gosh-that has been some fun painting times…

While I am still peering from below at where I would like my illustration to be at, it’s years like this I think it’s important to check in with yourself and acknowledge and appreciate when you’re skills have grown, and that I have actually learnt a couple of things about Gouache.

Of course, these are things that have worked for me and help me to keep in the flow of creating- rather than heading into overanalysis stasis, and may not work for every unique brain out there.

So these are my gouache paints,

Pretty right?

(I stuffed the tin with foam for effect, what you see is what I have… :)

And so this is my palette,

Unless I am doing a Large piece which requires a lot of fresh paint, I work from a dried palette and use a water dropper to drop a 2-3 drops of water onto each colour to rehydrate paints prior to painting.

I squeeze a small amount of paint into this palette, a small amount goes a long way, keeps fresher ( if you store them for more than a few days without letting them dry, some Fungi may grow…) and is likely to have less neighbouring colour contamination.

My art desire grew out of photography so I think of colours like a gamut; very similar to the colour wheel.

Colour choice is as personal as your lover. The aim of my palette is to get the brightest and most saturated colours I can, and just desaturate or neutralise a colour when needed. So I try to get a good coverage of the spectrum, with close but distinct hues from points around the edges of the gamut.

(I won’t digress into the subtractive versus additive mixing of colours of (reflective colours) pigment, dyes and (emitted colours) light, or insist that this is why you will create more tones with CMY than RGB primary paints…, so)

As a visual person, this helps me see when a colour needs to be more or less blue or red, or if it needs to be less saturated. The paint in my palette is in this order (recalibrated to the ROYGBIV order) with saturated colours running the ring around the outside and more neutral tones in the middle wherever they fit. This helps me to get the colours I want at a glance, rather than having to stop and think (*bonus) when my painting flow gets confused by the unorderly jumble of colours in front of me.
I tend to see and feel the colours, thinking confuses my output vision and therefore the lay down of paint.

One trick I learnt a few years back with my oil painting portrait study with 4 random (ordered) colours was to pay attention to the value of colour more than its actual colour. Even when a colour is wrong it still looks ok to the eye, but when the value is out your mind won’t believe the image it sees.

- I’m ok with not painting Photo realistically 100% true to colour.

Looking where you want to put the colour, gauging the colours around it and then visualising the colour to put there and then visually matching that with a colour in front of you, also helps to reduce the colours appearance change when viewed in certain combinations (a grey can look light or dark depending on the value of surrounding colours, similar for many hues)

However, with Gouache there can be a big drying shift that changes a colours value or hue once the paint has dried, and can be quite a shock.
A helpful tool is to have a palette swatch as a guide so when you are painting and think what colour do I put here, visualising it with your mind and looking at this swatch will help you get a hue which will dry to a much closer value.

While a palette swatch can take a little time, it is an invaluable step for maintaining the flow for your painting while making those colour mixes, especially if you are a visual thinker.

The general theory of Goauche drying shift is that lighter colours will dry darker and darker colours will dry lighter. To observe this shift I have swatched out my palette in duplicate, the second swatch of each colour was photographed while it was still wet.

From my results, I am not sure this rule holds true for my hues.
The light-mid hues were 4:3 getting lighter or darker, 1 with no change, the mid-dark hues were one equally for lighter, same and darker, the only significant change was the mid-tones where 4 got lighter, 4 the same and 8 got darker.
Of course mix consistency and colour contamination may play a role here, but I think I should disregard that rule and stick to my palette swatch, and in a pinch maybe assume a mid tone may be twice a likely to darken.

NB. Some Gouache will crack when dried and pop out of it’s tray, especially if you are taking your palette off the beaten track, my Gouache stays inside so I don’t have much to say here, it works fine this way.

Above is for traditional Gouache only, NOT ACRYLA/ acrylic gouache, which I suspect would behave more like an Acrylic.

I guess it’s reasonable to not have written a blog here for almost 4 months, considering the world has been turned upside down and disassembled in many parts and is still in varying states of sickness and rebuild- RATS.

All that jazz aside, I will write on- writing picture books that is, images are my weapons of choice, It’s much easier for me to draw it out than communicate via words.

So this is Xet, A barn Owl from a picture book “Erut Xet” to be released towards the end of the year, She is courageous in a world turned kooky, stay tuned there are only a few spreads to go.

“50 faces” kind of snuck up on me, this will be released on the ‘World Humanitarian Day’ 19th August, a date chosen as a subtle reminder the sacrifices we all do for humanity and those we love.

50 funny illustrated faces that will love you, this is an interactive (or not) book for your expression, for you to make your own.

If you have ever followed my art, or think the faces I illustrate have something to say-
You could be right.
This hardcover book with premium 70lbs paper shows the illustrations almost identically to the traditional media illustrations.
There are a few suggestions on how to use the book, but just be you, look at the faces and your heart will know what to do.

Stay safe, and I hope you are writing about this year, you wouldn’t have believed it, if you hadnt been here.

Nature truly is where it all happens,
so beautiful, colourful and exciting.
If your little ones like to wander and wonder,
“What is that Smell” ebook is now free on Amazon for a few days…

**eBook format glitches have been updated.

Well, I know mine is, but what isn’t these days?

Making images- art- illustrations- a picture on a page- whatever you call it, is such a process of the moment.

The method evolved by the artist- the topic chosen by current thoughts, desires or requirements- or something weird.

Mine seems to be the latter, most of the rewarding art pieces I am most proud of, are done during phases of intense play and enjoying the process. Loving the colours and the light shining about on the different mediums and combining on the page. And usually, more planning seems to result in a more boring result.

Most results are a bit ‘meh’ and I’m not really sure where the weird mood that is expressed on the page comes from when I am in such a state of fun.

I toss it aside on the recycle/ re-psyche pile and get on with the next one.

Looking back at them I find ideas of how to change/ improve/ finish them, and when they are done, the mood in the imagery seems very appropriate for the moment. Such as this one above, one that has evolved over the years, but today the mood certainly does relate.

Teardrop, now part of the ‘Blinkies’ series, blank (un-ruled) hardcover notebooks with illustrated covers.

My drawing hand has been quite busy with picture books for the young and not-young. There is one that I am experimenting with at the moment and it’s really exciting as I can include a lot of different art media among the characters.

Cats are on my ‘learn to draw’ list for a story idea coming up. Even though it is a few down the list, I couldn’t resist the urge to do an artists study in my illustrator dairy of Caldecott’s Cats when I came across a delightful not-young book by Randolph Caldecott as part of my Picture book readings.
In it was the ‘The House that Jack Built’, a Rhyme I think many will remember… in the house that Jack built.

The colour palette was a little different to my usual colours, I tried to stick to it most of the time, I think the colour was added in the printing stages of this book, so I just tried my best to get the look of it and did a fun layout.

I liked his treatment of the linework and found this a valuable study, which has probably helped me with my current projects as well as the Cats one.

This post has been a long time coming, (apologies) I’ve been wearing my designer hat more than my illustration pen, but I am excited to say that my second children’s picture book ‘Schroom: begins’ will be released in Hardcover on the 29th November by NoooBooks, YAY

The ‘Schroom’ picture book series is about Schroom, a mushroom, he is a dreamer, ‘Schroom: begins’ is the story of the beginning of his dreaming.

The 8.5 x 8.5 inch 36-page hardcover book has 17 illustrations which are a blend of traditional gouache, graphite, pastel and digital composite.

ISBN: 978-1-925991-42-0

In addition, a deluxe hardcover version of my picture book for adults ‘Human Energy’ a Sumi-e illustrated Art Story will be released on the 11th November. ISBN: 978-1-925991-41-3

These patient little fairies have been waiting in my sketchbook for around 3 months until I could do more illustrator studies to add to as illustrator diary posts.

Alas, I have been busy with a lot of projects and my other sketchbooks have jumped the cue.
One project was to photograph these gorgeous crystals for a fun a new book ‘My Crystal Chronicle’ by Olive Moss, being released in few weeks…

So it’s definitely time these Fairies get out for a bit of a play! and you know they like crystals right? We hope you do too.

There is a little room coming up in my schedule so I will add more illustrator diary posts soon, I hope to study Lizbeth Zwerger, thankyou to Manelle @ Tales fantastic for the recommendation in her great Fairytale video, Many thanks.

Have fun ;)

Here are the latest spreads from my Illustrator diary, these are two of my favourite author-illustrators.

I had a lot of fun studying Beatrix Potters illustration style, her clever use of colour and fun delicate drawings are enchanting, and was definitely my favourite in this series so far.

Of course, Dr Seuss was a lot of fun, the amount of fun Theodor Seuss Geisel could get into his lines and on the page is amazing.

Most of my time at the moment is going into books that won’t be published for a while, when I can I will try to get a few sneak peeks in.

Now I am studying Cicely Mary Barker, drawing fairies is new to me, so I will do my best, then I think perhaps some Gumnut babies might come to play!

It’s no secret,
that to become skilled in art many artists recommend to copy other artists work,
FOR LEARNING PURPOSES only of course. This is where you try to work out ‘how did they do that’ and then you ‘go do that’.

I found a great looking sketchbook at a cheap shop and thought it would be interesting to fill.
In December, I decided to use it as a diary of my illustrator studies, where I would do a layout of an illustrator I had been researching or had been reading…

(YES, I read kids picture books! it’s research, and I love them…)

The goal is to achieve a likeness or similar effect by deciphering and replicating the techniques. Keeping in mind to make the spread of images fun.

As a lover of ink and watercolour, I started trying Maurice Sendaks’ work and drew Max and some of the Creatures from ‘Where the Wild things are’ - I really love this style and will definitely use it for a book or two somewhere along the line.

I found ‘Tico’ in the library and just loved the story, I thought I would try to replicate Leo Lionni’s illustrations with Gouache. Some parts showed they could achieve a similar look, other areas need more, but I did not want to invest the time for a cheap sketchbook study where the paper may not hold up.

I won’t show you the next page*

(*it was what didn’t work, where I tried a very different style of a pair of illustrators. I was only happy with one of the 16 spot illustrations I did, - and it didn’t look anything like the style I was meant to be doing! Initially I thought maybe it was gouache with this paper- but later studies proved it works ok.)

Someone recommended to look up Emily Gravett, and thank you I am so glad I did, her work (both stories and illustrations) are awesome! Her Mice and Rabbit illustrations are adorable.

There was something magickal in the Book ‘Two Troll Tales from Norway’, retold by Margrete Lamond and illustrated by Ingrid Kallick.
The flourishes were a little tricky and I intend to practice that style more as I love the Fairytale embellishments. The paper handled the use of gouache here quite well.

The last study is of Renata Liwska’s adorable animals. I tried a few ways but could not really imitate her loose hatching style perhaps it was done digitally, it's hard to tell sometimes but I think it’s still possible to replicate most digital effects traditionally.
One of my pencils was close but very wrong in colour, so I have ordered a few more colours to try out, as I did like the effect. Perhaps my hand will loose-hatch better on a larger scale, I am looking forward to trying coloured pencil hatching in my illustrations.

So far I’m enjoying this illustrator diary very much, and hope to show your more soon.
It’s proving valuable and satisfying, it reminds me of areas I need to strengthen and is also a bit reassuring when something kind of works.

**Disclaimer, I do share bits of these on Instagram so if you want to see my next illustrator study sooner…

Let me know of an illustrator to research!

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]]>Illustrator diaries...ArtistArtist bookIllustrationIllustratorimageryInkNew book releaseLovePen and inkWatercolourSwatchesTraditional Art mediaJill RobbTue, 05 Mar 2019 22:34:40 +0000https://jillrobbimagery.com/blog/swatching-the-long-way-the-turtle-can-win5c2966181aef1d60b29ad21b:5c32c80b4d7a9c0f3d0b2983:5c7eec77f4e1fc40150ccad9My traditional illustration tools

Some people would say I am a little traditional- especially with my love of traditional Art media, and holding a good old fashioned Book or shiny magazine in your hands and turning the pages.

However, I do also love the Digital world- carrying a treasure trove in a pocket- is amazing.

But when it comes to creating- being a visual person I am hugely inspired by what I see. I am one of those messy creators with all my tools in front of me where I can see them and know instantly that I need to use that one for doing that little thing -and for that line use that colour -and that brush in that way.

Working with many different traditional media- like ink, watercolour, pastel, gouache, pencil.
Over the years I have discovered that using swatches in my work process is invaluable and instantly inspires the best tool, saving a huge amount of time trying to think! -, I can just get on with creating imagery instead of choices like ‘that Phthalo blue is too cool I should use a flat brush and add a little … and then with a pen, but which nib? …. pfft I’m exhausted just writing about thinking about that.

These are my most used swatches for my favourite art materials, and a few more I am making to use to help design my books.
Swatching out takes time and can feel monotonous, however, it really is an investment in my imagery process, it helps maintain flow, streamlines the process and saves time spent unnecessarily thinking (bonus), which when creating can result in analysis paralysis.

Whenever I look at an image and get that familiar feeling of - ‘it needs…something..’ this can be answered by flipping through my swatches. I’m not sure if it is the colours, the line- the energy of the strokes, the page layout - a memory thought while I was doing them- but a sweet angel of an idea often bursts out indicating ‘this one- this way’ and if it doesn’t,
that moment is meant for other inspirations (cuppa / nature/ walk).

My personal project, ‘Human energy’- is a series I have been working on for a while now, and I’m very excited that it will be released by Nooobooks publishing imprint very soon as a Sumi-e art story.

The artworks were an evaluation of a feeling or human energy and an exploration of it in spontaneous ink painting, each piece being titled with the mood. Some being love, dance and life.
Upon reflection of the series, the titles became a story and now the story has become a book.

Sort of like an ‘art picture book’ an illustrated short story.

While brush hand lettering the text for this book I released that it was these tools- (Sumi and fudé) which began my exploration of traditional art techniques, which I found much more satisfying than a pixel or vector line.

While I don't do Manga-style art, I fell in love with the tools - the inks- nibs- fudé - and Chinese calligraphy brushes, and use them regularly in much of my imagery, while I chase the making of the perfect mark.

I re-lived how frustrating it can be trying to get the perfect line - which is very obvious when painting letters with fudé. Push on, push through the self-doubt wobbling your lines with its energy, and try to remember it’s a worthwhile chase to find the right balance of perfect and imperfect touch.

***UPDATE***
Human Energy is now available;
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-6484962-0-5
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-925991-41-3

I’m excited to announce I have a few designs available on a new product - Yoga Mats!!!!, they are 60cm x 178cm) (24 x 70 inch.)

The designs so far include a watercolour yoga pose designs on blue, teal and black. These are now available with matching tote bags. Click on image for details of each.

My latest Fine Art photography calendar of twelve a.door.able doors in Italy was released today (yay) and is available in link and via all good book stores.
If the favourable computer fairies come to play for a while- a Monochrome Door Calendar will be released shortly..... unless they don't then you might need to wait a bit.

The doors in Italy are so beautiful, to live behind one would be such a lovely welcome on your return home.

Original post blogged on 14th November 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.

Italy truly is an amazing and beautiful place to visit, the weather was superb when we were there earlier this year, and the food was -- AMAZING--  I hope I get the opportunity to return very soon as I absolutely adore it.

I have just published this Fine Art Wall Calendar available for sale now at Amazon or the Book Depository along with other calendars such as "Painterly Sorrento"  (Melbourne- not Italy), and some black and white surf and beach themed titles

Original post blogged on 6th November 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.

The White Rhino is my final drawing for a great short Natural History Illustration course I have just completed. The course helped me understand graphite and I really enjoyed closely observing the natural world and the application of Science in drawing, I am looking forward to doing more Natural History-style illustrations and incorporating design and layout to illustrate Scientific discoveries and principles, and venturing into further techniques with colour- watercolour, ink, pencils and some digital too.

The white Rhino is such a majestic creature, it is sad for the Rhino that China has reversed a 25 year Ban and is now allowing the sale of Rhino horn (and Tigers) for medicinal purposes. Although the Southern White Rhino previously thought to be extinct, is doing well in Ranger protected reserves, and is now listed as 'near threatened' (WWF). Sadly poachers are now a more serious threat against these efforts.

There are only 2 remaining Northern White Rhinos. Researchers on four continents are working with Eggs and Tissue samples in the hope to facilitate the Northern White Rhino's survival.

This Rhino lives in Florence, Italy in La Specola Natural History Museum as a Taxidermy specimen, will this be the only way we will soon be able to see a northern White Rhino?

Original post blogged on 1st November 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.

When I published my first picture book earlier this year, this blog was hibernating, so this is a little catch-up.

This is not the way to publish a children's book, a little btw after the fact, but anyhoo that's all part of the learning curve, to build the audience and do most of the marketing prior to release is the way it should be done.
To talk about and market more of the things that I am doing is part of the self-marketing I am working on improving, and to do this before projects are finished when I'm elbow deep in and obsessed about the next project.

I loved the process of illustrating a whole book, and am currently deciding which of my story ideas are more ready to be next, once I am done with my current photo projects.

Want to explore with Bam and find out what is that smell? Available on Amazon or order online through your favourite local bookstore (ISBN-13: 978-1984017925)

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Original post blogged on 24th October 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.

One of the hardest things for me is self-promotion, but it is a vital ingredient not only for Artists but for success in many fields. I am much happier to just create and do what I do and somehow magically it will all work out if I do... (--pfft, yeah right~)

I am pleased that my submission to the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Style File was accepted. The Style File is a curated portfolio of Australian Illustrators and I am so happy to be included with all of these talented illustrators. YAY

Original post blogged on 17th October 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.

Graphite Spice- Chilli, Ginger, Garlic, Cardamom....

I am a few weeks into a short Botanical illustration course and these are a few drawings so far. I really love the beauty of nature- including food and of course all those delicious flavours- in particular gorgeous herbs and spices.
Slowly I am becoming more comfortable with my graphite nemesis, and am really enjoying the scientific application of drawing to my imagery to create an accurate and life-like illustration. I look forward now to new explorations into scientific illustration, infographics and the design and illustration of scientific principles and concepts.

Original post blogged on 9th October 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.

With the increase of all that lovely black ink around this month (Inktober) I thought I would remind you to not forget about your colours too, make sure you include several of the colours from this palette a day- 5 vegetable servings and 2 of fruit, if you don't, make sure you paint with them :)

Original post blogged on 2nd October 2018, Re-blogged due to moved domain.