I’m trying to figure out which “way of working” I actually like. Not just my artistic style, but the actual workflow. Over the last few months I’ve been playing around with a snail motif, and I think I have finally come to a workflow and style that I like.
- The first image shows the original sketch illustration I did many years ago when I was writing a children’s book.
- I started sketching some snails…
- and brought those sketches into Illustrator to see if I could could up with a main character with a little more personality.
- I used some hand drawn textures to add a lot more interest to the snail’s body and shell.
- Once I got the snail that I liked, I realized it would be more interesting if he was perched on a mushroom as opposed to sitting on a tree root. I also flip-flopped back and forth between how “cartoonish” the snail should be.
- I finally decided on the look of the snail and colored the scene. I also added a lot of texture to the background, mushroom and dirt/grass.
- Finally I put a simplified version of the scene (minus some of the texture) into a repeat to see if I liked it.
All of the sketches and final drawings were done in Procreate. The final drawings were brought into Illustrator, vectorized and color was added. For the 6th snail illustration (snail on yellow background), I brought the completed scene back into Procreate to add the texture for the background, the snail and the mushrooms. I loved working this way as I felt like it gave me a lot of control and flexibility.
But honestly, I don’t like the final pattern at all. It’s too busy and just not something that brings me any joy.
I do like the little snail with the yellow background. But frankly what I like most about it is all the texture I added to the background and individual motifs of the scene.
What I I’ve learned is that I don’t really like drawing “characters” like little animals. And “whimsical style” isn’t something that comes naturally to me.
I’m more interested in the texture, linework, and decorative aspects of the motifs than trying to draw whimsical characters and motifs.
I’ll keep going with this project so I can finish the work I’m doing for Immersion, but I think I need to reassess my original desire to illustrate and design for the children’s market.
