Visual Voice by Fred Koehler

I'm fairly certain that I am the least qualified illustrator on this blog in many of the technical areas of illustration. I could start to list my deficits, but I think you'd get bored and I'd get depressed. Instead, let's talk about something that seems to have carried over successfully from my career in advertising, and that's the concept of Voice.

Silly Fred, Voice is a writers' thing, isn't it? Yes it is. But it also has major implications for the marriage of words and pictures in the creation of successful storytelling. It's why the illustrator's name goes on the cover of the book. Because illustrators lend their Visual Voice to a project just as much as the author brings a Narrative Voice.

Here's an example from a follow-up book I'm working on to Dad's Bad Day (Penguin 2014).

"Little Gray helped his dad with the dishes." 

If you gave this line to a hundred different illustrators, you'd get back a hundred completely different illustrations. And here's where illustrators with practiced Visual Voice can differentiate themselves as storytellers.

Sketch 1 - Little Gray is an elephant, his dad is an elephant, and the little guy is helping the big guy do the dishes. TA DA!!! Here's a sketch.

The Visual Voice of this image is sweet. It's cheerful and it's a great moment between father and son. But is it the right Voice for the illustration? See, I happen to know Little Gray pretty well, and I know he's quite a cantankerous little elephant. The scene pictured above is much less likely to happen than the following sketch.

Visual Voice. Get it? Same words + different images = completely different stories. Pretty cool, huh? Here's another example from the same story.

"Little Gray got extra-special dressed up for the occasion."

Sketch 1 - I go with the words of the story.

Sketch 2 - I get inside the character's brain and draw what I think he might actually do.

  Same words, completely different stories.

There are bunches of illustrators who do this really really well. Here are three for you to check out–all brilliant, all with compelling Visual Voice, and all with books on the shelf of your local bookstore.

Dan Santat
In "Oh No," Dan takes a very short text and invents a gorgeous world to propel a fantastic concept into a really fun and adventurous final storytelling product. The nuance that he adds to his work is phenomenal.

Molly Idle
In "Flora and the Flamingo," we don't even need words to hear (and see) an amazing Voice. The story is told in simple expression and interaction between unlikely friends who make for great characters. Love it!

Jon Klassen
If you read "I Want My Hat Back" without the illustrations it might make sense, but it would be a completely different story. Jon uses visual nuance to imply a much funnier tale than the words themselves actually communicate.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading. Fred out!!

Digital Sketching from Hazel Mitchell

Lately I've been working a lot more with digital sketching, getting my thoughts right onto the screen with no premeditation or thumb-nailing. Really this has been an exercise to stop me overworking, to play more and to have some fun! I have also been limiting my palette by using online palette suggestions (I use http://design-seeds.com, although there are many others out there).

It's been taking me in a different direction and got me out of my standard tools/colours/process. So I thought I would share a few of the sketches I have worked on this last month. Most of them were 15 mins to an hour and I draw on a Wacom tablet and use photoshop CS5.

Thanks for stopping by Pixel Shavings! Stop by next time to see what Russ Cox has on the menu.

Hazel Mitchell

http://hazelmitchell.com

http://hazelmitchell.blogspot.com

 

 

 

  

 

 

Concept is King and the rest of us are Jokers by Fred Koehler

For this week's post I thought I'd use a recent piece that was entered in the SCBWI Tomie DePaola contest based on the classic tale of Chicken Licken. (The sky is falling! The sky is falling!) You can see everybody's entries here.

My entry did receive a good number of comments, and a lot of them talked about an appreciation of the "concept" or "idea." So I thought I'd try and share a little bit as to where and how I find concepts and ideas for illustrations.

To be honest it all starts in a text document before I even pick up a pencil. I ask myself the question "What would make this funny? Or different? Or cool?" That list of answers might hit 30 or 40 before I'm start to go back through and decide which one(s) to research further. A lot of times I try to take what's expected and do the exact opposite. (Instead of "eating pancakes for breakfast," try "pancakes eating their breakfast.")

For the Chicken Licken story, my list included "looking through a hole in the sky" and "24 [the tv show] cut-scenes." Those two stood out and I sketched them, but wasn't thrilled with the results. But here's the cool part. In doing the sketches and researching the characters, I kept my eyes open for other concepts to add to the list. I talked through the sketches with friends and colleagues and my list of concepts grew even bigger.

During this process, lo and behold I encountered a vision of the holy grail of comic iconography – a rubber chicken. And where do rubber chickens live? In a toy box. From there I started wondering if there was an iconic toy counterpart to all of the other characters. Lo and behold there was! As I finished my research I never even ended up using the rubber chicken, but that's where it all started.

Then, after all that, I did sketches. I decided on a vintage palette and a toy shelf instead of a toy box (so it would be easier for the "sky" to be falling). The result, I thought, was successful.

I titled this blog "Concept is King" because I honestly believe that the work we do before ever setting pencil to paper is the most important. The magic of our character interactions, the reaction we hope to get from our viewer – we can document those intentions and work till we achieve them.

Best of luck to all of ya, and keep up the good work!

~Fred
flikr.com/superfredd

Going Batty by Sheralyn Barnes

            Halloween has come and gone, but the glow of the slightly sagging Jack O’ Lantern’s still illuminate these early dark November nights. I love Halloween and have trouble letting it go for another whole year. It’s the perfect holiday for the imagination with color combinations that can make an artist’s heart skip a beat. So I decided to extend Halloween just a wee bit longer so that I could take 

advantage of it for this post. 

I’ve really been trying to build my skills with color and lighting, as well as try to loosen up my computer painting technique. So here is a quick painting honoring my beloved holiday. For this piece I built layers of different colors and then erased them as if they were scratch board. I found it’s a fun technique and kind of relaxing.

©2011 Sheralyn Barnes

To see more of my work you can view my website at....

www.sheralynbarnes.com

Thanks for checking in again and be sure to tune in next week for the 

great John Deininger!

Flying Fairy from Hazel Mitchell

Lately I've been working on loosening up my style. So noodling about before the LA conference I came up with this little fairy character ...

She's cross because she's having trouble flying.

 

 

 

 

So it all worked out in the end .....

See more of my work at http://hazelmitchell.com

I also have a new sketchblog hope you will drop by and visit.

http://hazelmitchell.tumblr.com/

Lastly and certainly not leastly - welcome JOHN DEININGER to Pixel Shavings. We are so happy to have him aboard and I KNOW there will be awesome posts by him.

Tune in this time next week to see what delectable delights artist RUSS COX will be bringing to the party here on the Glog.

Toodles!

Hazel

Giant Hugs from Fred Koehler

At the end of this month, I get to spend the whole day in an SCBWI illustration intensive led by Ruth Cummins, Associate Art Director at Simon & Schuster. Our "homework" was to pick three or four pieces from our portfolio that demonstrate our style and the work we'd like to be doing.

Today's post is one of those pieces, a rework of my second favorite from the "Almost Giant" series. I was really happy for this assignment, because the discovery of who we are and who we want to be as artists is a significant achievement.

For instance I've always loved to create work that rewards the careful observer. I like to hide characters and messages in clever ways. I also like it when the whole drawing winks at you as though you're part of the story, too. Mediums and subjects will change from project to project, but a rockstar illustrator can't help but inject his/her character into every piece.

So consider yourself hugged, wish me luck at the conference, and check back next week for a fabulous post from the inestimable Sheralyn Barnes.

 

freddiek.com 

Lost and Found - Hazel Mitchell

I have been concentrating lately on getting more emotion into my illustrations, enhanced by mood and lighting. I have also trying out a looser style, working to get the drawing down in the first try to keep the spontaneity of line and thought.

So this piece is pencil with minimal colouring in photoshop.

And this is the original sketch.

Below is a sketch with a more light-hearted feeling. Perhaps suitable for a magazine.

 

I finished this one in hand dipping ink pen and tinted in Photoshop.

Right now I am working on a book for Charlesbridge Publishing called 'Hidden New Jersey' and chapter book illustrations for Kane and Miller Publishing. 

Looking forward to sharing those with you in the future here on Pixel Shavings!

See more of my illustrations on Facebook 

at 

Hazel Mitchell Sketchbook

or

hazelmitchell.com

Rocko and the Tiger from Hazel Mitchell

I was going to find a valentine image ... but here is a little dog with a big heart! Here's a little pen and ink drawing from a story 'Rocko the Hero' about a brave dog and a tiger. I love to work loose sometimes, in pen and ink.

 

 

Thanks for visiting Pixel Shavings ... you can see more of my work at

my sketch book page on Facebook

Thanks

Hazel

http://hazelmitchell.com