Drawing from memories.

If I wasn't busy enough I wanted to enter a competition by Picturehooks over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuy7aymKOSX/ With limited time I had to work cleverly, using research already done! I needed to do a sequence of the theme of "oh no". My progress involved coming up with an idea... fast.

This is coming up with some ideas, I really try my hardest never to commit to my first idea. This allows me to explore the possibilities fully, this is an idea of my creative practice that I have had to work on. As there is no denying I get emotionally attached easily to my work. Due to the timeframe I was allowing myself I needed to draw upon my own memories. I was keen to keep this very summery and I had just done a lot of research into seaside/British stores so it felt right to keep this vibe. It was the comment I made that made me zero in on an idea (Seagull poo's) A few years ago my daughter got pooed on at the seaside.

This is followed by some early doodles as I test this idea visually. The main thing that really stood out was the shape of the seagull and the story of the oh no started to form. A young girl refusing to pay the seagull her icecream so she gets pooed upon.

This is followed by me figuring out the character. Whist this is based on my daughter, a lot of my illustrations are based on my daughter and myself (My daughter is my mini-me) Which is long blonde hair. I wanted to have fun with the character and another memory popped into my mind. A few years ago I was at lego land with my family, I remember seeing this adorable young girl in a pretty dress. She screamed main character vibes and so I had to draw her, I did sketch her after but never really had an illustration for her. This seems right. I did work a little on the arrangement, but opted to keep very simple and give the vibe of a classic British seaside without going into great detail. Letting the character do the talking and main focus. With this in mind, I was able to keep a very simple effective before-and-after moment.

I was working in procrProcreateeate so created a new document and using a grey scale I was able to figure out my roughs a little better, taking these roughs I started another file in Procreate.

Procreate (Above) These illustrations were created in Procreate, this is for ease of access and planned to work on them a little bit while on the go. (Multi-tasking queen) I have worked hard on creating textures that mimic traditional, a part of this process means I limited the undo button and embrace the little happy accidents. I use brushes from Procreate sets/Lucy Fleming and MaxPacks. I use overlay layers to receive textures and washes. You see very early I created a limited colour palette (which I quickly tested against each other and roughly planned the colour draft) With colours I try for five main colours, dark, light, mid, main and colour pop. The colour pop is the girl's dress so can draw the audience to her. During this, you will see me use a grey scale pop-up. This is an overlay I switch on and off to make sure my values and contrast are there. These are all techniques I have built up from memory from courses on skillshare, happy accidents, domestika and people around me. Top tips for using digital in a traditional way... 1. Use traditional mediums - It helps to know what trying to recreate. Explore using markmaking, in your sketchbook and even better digitally collage traditional illustration elements together. 2. Embrace the little ops moments, and give the undo button a rest. 3. Make your iPad feel more like paper with a screen protector (I use Paperlite) 4. Use overlays - explore this and see what works for you. 5. Brushes - limit them and take time to explore them. I have a lot of brushes, but only 9 of these are my go-to brushes (This includes textures) 2 are from max packs, 3 are from Lucys Craft box and four are what comes with Procreate. (The rest are a luxury if need something different from my visuals) - I still love brushes. This is a little insight into my creative practice, the way I work from memory to create something new. Let me know if like me to share more insights into my creative practice.