Late February Report Part 2: Mt Barney

©©©Late-February Report©©©

Here are the second set of images for late February.

Reference image

1. Pencil sketch

2. Base coat

3. Pencil on watercolours

4. Increasing contrast with watercolour paint

5. More rendering

6. Areas of removed paint

Final: indoor lighting

Final: outdoor lighting

Late February Report Part 1: Daisy Hill

©©©Late-February Report©©©

Not all water colour images work out as well as you might hope, my most recent illustrations both being quite troublesome.
In these studies I tried to prioritise contrast in the hope that it would add depth and and framing to the images. While a sense of framing was achieved I need to make sure that accuracy to the photography does not come at the expense of depth, as shadows in photographs can be misleading when deciphering form.

DAISY HILL STUDY

Reference image

1. Light pencil and base watercolours

2. Aquarelle sketch

3. Watercolours

4. Pencil on top of watercolours

5. More rendering

Final: outdoor lighting

Final: scan

Final: digital editing 

Another issue I seemed to face with these images was the smothering of the pencil under the heavier watercolour paint. This ended up wasting a lot of time but should be a helpful lesson for future works! 

Depiction of water is also in need of further practice!

Digital editing too!

This is getting a bit long so I will post my second study in the next post. 

Mid-February Report Part 3: Even More Watercolours

©©©Mid-February Report©©©

For my third image I decided to choose one off the 'Healthy Water Ways' website, as they are the people I am working with on this next project. One of the interesting things about this image is its vibrant quality, quite different from the more de-saturated studies I had tried earlier. 

Working on this image I also decided to use water colour paint as well as aquarelle pencils. 

Like the second study, I had a bit of a hard time with the indistinguishable background foliage. I tried to create some definition between the trees and began diverting away from the reference photo to avoid further confusion. To make to image work as a composition I also worked on framing the river by adding greater contrast to the outer trees and by using very light washes for the tree trunks in the center. 

One of the biggest issues I have with this image is the river, which looks like more like a solid surface rather than a transparent one. As well as foliage I will have to also work more on my depiction of water especially as it is key to this project

reference image link

Final images uses contrast and brightening filters on Photoshop.

Mid-February Report Part 2: More Water Colours

©©©Mid-February Report©©©

For my second watercolour test I decided to document the process more thoroughly. This image was done in a very similar way to the first, with a light wash and a build up of colour all done with Aquarelle, watercolour pencils. I had a rather hard time with this image, especially in rendering the background foliage as I didn't know what I was meant to be drawing. The framing I used was also rather square and ended up squashing the composition. To top it all off I seemed to struggle greatly with the grass, the strokes being too wide and unconvincing. 

photo reference link

For this final image I added a bit of contrast on Photoshop. I would like to experiment with this a bit more later on!

Mid-February Part 1: Watercolours

©©©Mid-February Report©©©

This February I have been working on some watercolour studies for my upcoming project on water health in South East Queensland Rivers.

In my last project I made an animated film set in Fiji which included close to 30 watercolour backgrounds. These watercolour images provided me with a great opportunity to improve my technique and experiment with new ideas. However, due to my constant improvement and experimentation I did notice that many of these backgrounds were quite inconsistent. As such I am focusing on documenting my process for this second project in the hope that I can work out some kind of formula to keep these backgrounds in check.

My thoughts on backgrounds in animation

Backgrounds can play many roles in animation but most notably their function is world building and creating an environment which feels immersive and believable. As such, it is important that there is nothing in the backgrounds which could potentially compromise this. Inconsistencies are very dangerous and when something unintentionally stands out it removes you from the illusion and you are no longer partaking in the stakes of that world.

Water Colour Study 1

For my first study I used an image of the Lockyer Valley, home to the Lockyer Creek which is one of the water basins that feeds into the Brisbane river. I thought it would be interesting to see how much clearer the water was further away from the city and whether or not there was a greater density of surrounding vegetation. In the photo reference I used, it looks like one of the sides of the embankment has collapsed in the past. This would be good to look into later on as I try to depict erosion in my film. 

Technique wise; I started with a mechanical pencil sketch and began colouring the image with aquarelle pencils. A light wash was done, brushing the paper which had been shaded with a sandy coloured pencil. Progressively more colours were added each time to build up the depth and definition of the scene. Because pencils were the only medium used in this image it has a very light and overexposed appearance, not unlike the photo reference used. 

Photo reference link