Illustration and Photograph Combination (Digital Media)
Digital media allows us to do certain things that would be impossible, unlikely, or incredibly difficult. It can gift us certain shortcuts. It can make certain things seem more real or possible. One of the ideas I was toying with was trying to take a character and insert them into the real world. The idea was to blend a character and make it seem like they are existing in the real world. To do this, I would need to find a photograph and then draw an image to fit into it.
Thinking back to our theme of environment, whilst I happened to be staring out of a window into a thunderstorm, I realised that I actually really enjoy being in the rain. So long as it's not cold or windy. It's probably one of my favourite weathers to stand in. With that thought in mind, I wanted to draw a character enjoying themselves in the rain. I starting going through stock images of rainy scenes, to see if any spurred any ideas.
I found this image, and was immediately drawn to it. It was exactly the sort of environment I wanted, the right sort of rain, if that even makes sense. I could imagine someone running around in it. The picture was especially great because there were no people present in the frame, so a non-photographed person wouldn't seem inconsistent.
I sketched out a character that I just came up with on the spot. I liked the idea of a cute girl running through the rain enjoying herself. I drew my sketch on top of the photograph, dropping the opacity so I could focus on the drawing. I wanted it to look like she was jumping off of that small step on the right. I had a really hard time deciding how her legs should be positioned to best achieve this. I did her in my typical style, which is sort of squat in proportions with simple features. I know my tutors will question the large eyes that my style features. It's not Anime. Anime eyes are typically more detailed. My eye style, whilst taking elements from anime, is actually more based on 90s cartoons like Dexter's Laboratory or Fairly Odd Parents, things I watched as a kid.
I tidied up the sketch and 'inked' it, to create this lineart of the character. I intentionally used a thinner line for this than I usually use, in the hopes it would help it fit in with the photograph better.
I added the flat colours I wanted to use. Blue was my main colour that I wanted to run through her design, mostly just because of the rainy theme. Even though the short and squat style is something I did intentionally, at this point I'm wondering if the legs are too short.
Using a singular colour, I use a Multiply layer to add shading, using a softer, more painterly like application. As I wanted this character to look like she existed in a real space, I avoided using sharp shading techniques, such as my normal style. I hoped this looked more atmospheric, and less jarring. I actually quite liked how this was shaping up.
Once I had the shading done, I brought the photograph back and added some shadow to the ground to make it seem like she was present in the image. I also added some rain effects to her boot, coat, umbrella, and anywhere else I thought the rain would touch her. I'm actually really pleased with how this came out, it doesn't seem overly jarring or alien looking. It's really pretty close to what I had in my head, which is quite rare for me.
Again, this was a technique I hadn't experimented with, I'd never tried adding an image to a photograph in this way. I know this is something that has been done before, and even been done traditionally, such as painting a character onto an actual role of film, but the digital element allows us to be more precise and focused on the image. It's a lot easier than attempting something like this traditionally, which by proxy makes it more accessible, opening doors for more artists to experiment with this sort of thing. I'd never be able to do something like this traditionally.
Thinking back to our theme of environment, whilst I happened to be staring out of a window into a thunderstorm, I realised that I actually really enjoy being in the rain. So long as it's not cold or windy. It's probably one of my favourite weathers to stand in. With that thought in mind, I wanted to draw a character enjoying themselves in the rain. I starting going through stock images of rainy scenes, to see if any spurred any ideas.
I found this image, and was immediately drawn to it. It was exactly the sort of environment I wanted, the right sort of rain, if that even makes sense. I could imagine someone running around in it. The picture was especially great because there were no people present in the frame, so a non-photographed person wouldn't seem inconsistent.
I sketched out a character that I just came up with on the spot. I liked the idea of a cute girl running through the rain enjoying herself. I drew my sketch on top of the photograph, dropping the opacity so I could focus on the drawing. I wanted it to look like she was jumping off of that small step on the right. I had a really hard time deciding how her legs should be positioned to best achieve this. I did her in my typical style, which is sort of squat in proportions with simple features. I know my tutors will question the large eyes that my style features. It's not Anime. Anime eyes are typically more detailed. My eye style, whilst taking elements from anime, is actually more based on 90s cartoons like Dexter's Laboratory or Fairly Odd Parents, things I watched as a kid.
I tidied up the sketch and 'inked' it, to create this lineart of the character. I intentionally used a thinner line for this than I usually use, in the hopes it would help it fit in with the photograph better.
I added the flat colours I wanted to use. Blue was my main colour that I wanted to run through her design, mostly just because of the rainy theme. Even though the short and squat style is something I did intentionally, at this point I'm wondering if the legs are too short.
Using a singular colour, I use a Multiply layer to add shading, using a softer, more painterly like application. As I wanted this character to look like she existed in a real space, I avoided using sharp shading techniques, such as my normal style. I hoped this looked more atmospheric, and less jarring. I actually quite liked how this was shaping up.
Once I had the shading done, I brought the photograph back and added some shadow to the ground to make it seem like she was present in the image. I also added some rain effects to her boot, coat, umbrella, and anywhere else I thought the rain would touch her. I'm actually really pleased with how this came out, it doesn't seem overly jarring or alien looking. It's really pretty close to what I had in my head, which is quite rare for me.
Again, this was a technique I hadn't experimented with, I'd never tried adding an image to a photograph in this way. I know this is something that has been done before, and even been done traditionally, such as painting a character onto an actual role of film, but the digital element allows us to be more precise and focused on the image. It's a lot easier than attempting something like this traditionally, which by proxy makes it more accessible, opening doors for more artists to experiment with this sort of thing. I'd never be able to do something like this traditionally.
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