CONTRAST AND COLOURS

Always the face

Viewers are always naturally drawn to a face in an illustration. With a portrait, I nearly always use warm tones where we naturally have more blood flow. These areas are the cheeks, lips and nose. I also use warm tones where skin folds or creases, like the nostrils here.

Photoshop Adjustment layers

I use Adjustment layers to manipulate the illustration and my colour harmony gradually. I love these types of layers because it gives me the freedom to make changes without permanently altering the original. Some of my favourites to play with are Vibrance, Hue and Saturation, and Levels layers.

Details can strengthen a story

I research deep-sea creatures when building an environment for my mermaids. I give her bioluminescent hair to help guide her through the dark depths. I also add remoras – sometimes called suckerfish – to her tail. These smaller fishes are often present on larger sea mammals and act as little companion cleaners.

Reference is key

All great illustrators use reference. It’s the best way to achieve believable forms and strengthen your muscle memory. For the hand, I had my friend pose for me. For the glowing underwater effect, I Googled street lights in fog. For the gills, I researched sharks’ gills to understand their patterns.

Suggested forms

I knew the background would be less important with this piece, and the real focus is the little mermaid. I drew suggested forms of seaweed, sea life and her tail fin, leaving more to the imagination for the viewer. It’s a way to work smarter and not harder.

Building with contrast

With contrast you can strengthen your composition and lead the viewers’ eyes. You can have contrast in colours by using complementary colours or warm versus cool colours. Use contrast in values with darks versus lights. Or have contrast with hard edges versus soft edges. All are tools in your artist toolkit.

Find your narrative

You don’t want a static illustration. Find opportunities to add narrative and make the viewer ask questions. Who is this character, and what are they doing? Push the narrative with the landscape, jewellery, garments and so on, to add depth to the story. Always make design choices with a purpose.

WORKSHOP MATERIALS

SOFT CHALK PASTELS Prismacolor Nupastels, Koh-i-noor, Sennelier

PAPER Arches BFK Rives paper PROGRAMS/TOOLS

Photoshop, Wacom Tablet