The Life and Adventures of Jeff Duckworth » Purple Fish

Birth of a Book Part 8: Setting

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:17:05 +0000

Time for setting. As stated earlier, I want something simple for This Tree is for Me. The main focus should be on the characters and their interaction with one another, not the setting. However two elements play an important part in the store and have to be given proper consideration: The Tree and the Sea. Also, I decided to implement some textures into the image and since they fell through working for characters, the background is where I tried them. Here is my favorite sketch for setting:

Setting for This Tree is for Me

Next up: Layout sketches.

Birth of a Book Part 7: Curveballs

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:30:24 +0000

This week I worked on coloring my characters for This Tree is for Me. The original idea was to use patterns from nature to bring the characters to life. I stuck to the plan. Taking the line drawings I produced, I added in color and texture as a test. The following is the result:

Purple Fish Textures Test

Orange Monkey Textures Test

While the textures turned out OK, something was missing. I tried natural textures, manmade textures, geometric textures, etc. but nothing seemed to fit just right. After struggling, I realized why. The lines didn’t want a texture. They were too playful and loose to support them. In the end, Orange Monkey just didn’t look Orange Monkeyish enough and Purple Fish? Well, he was a bit Fishy. I was about to give up when on a whim I applied the same color style as I used in Moo-Pig and in many illustrations on this site. Both Monkey and Fish loved them. I enjoy this technique it shows in my work when I use it. Here is the sketch I came up with:

Orange Monkey and Purple Fish in Colorfulticity.

This works much better. I still plan to implement the textures into the illustrations, but they will be used in the setting. This is a curveball in my plan of attack on the book, but I always follow the illustrations where they may go. It’s always important to me to listen to the story, to the characters, and give them what they need to be successful.

Birth of a Book Part 6: Purple Fish gets the Orange Monkey Treatment

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:51:19 +0000

This week Purple Fish gets the same treatment as Orange Monkey. I produced a sketch of possible poses for him while using a build done in illustrator. I tried to replicate some of the same poses in the Orange Monkey sketch. My immediate response is that Purple Fish will be a harder creature to build character and maintain variation. He is less intricate than Orange Monkey. My response to this will be to be creative in how he is used. I will place him in situations and put objects around him to give him maximum expression of character with his simple look. This means a majority of his character will be defined later in the processes. I have also explored the possibility of adding eyebrows. Following is the initial character study of Purple Fish:

Purple Fish

Birth of a Book Part 4: Things are Getting Sketchy

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:46:06 +0000

Paper, meet your new friend the pen. Lets get to know each other! This is the scariest part of my book design process for me to share. The sketches are very honest, very open. They are flawed, ugly, primitive and silly. I never show these; they are meant for myself. However, to fully understand my process, I will share them freely.

I always sketch the main characters first. They are the most important part and the rest of the art should follow them. Who/what drives your story? For This Tree is for Me, the answer is Orange Monkey and Purple fish. I will start with them and allow them to inspire the rest of the illustrations. I have a few rules for my initial sketches.

No color.
No limits.
Draw from your imagination.
No corrections. The eraser doesn’t exist.
No throwing away.
Don’t spend more than 15 seconds per sketch

Yes, you read right. No more than 15 seconds. 15 seconds? This is the most important rule! Why waste time? Throw your sketches out as fast as they come and don’t look back. Make a mistake? Leave it, move on. Keep moving. Moving creates movement, movement creates life. Let your imagination fly. It’s the only way you will know what it is capable of.

Following are two pages of sketches (out of a total of 30 or so) I produced.

Fast Monkey Sketches.

Fast Fish Sketches.

Out of these countless fish and countless monkeys, I pulled my two favorites out. I sketched them on the same page to see how they looked together.

My two favorite sketches combined.

Orange Monkey, meet Purple Fish. Now my challenge as an illustrator becomes retaining the fun, fresh, and lively spirit of these sketches on a much larger scale. If I lose that life, I lose the illustrations.