Narrative Illustration Development. Trying a mid-century look

As I had stated in my early work I wanted to incorporate some form of mid-century into my final illustrations. This led to a lot of experimentation with different types of paint. The main look I wanted to achieve was a flat mat look. The best mediums for this were Acrylics and Gouache paints as they dry relatively flat and come in a variety of colour.  

I began by completing some rough experiments using acrylic paints. This was to get an understanding of the media and how it looked on a flat surface e.g. board. By using board and card the final result will appear flatter. I’m not fond of acrylic from past experiments but I found it to work in this case however, I did have to layer it many times to get the desired effect. This can cause damage to the card underneath as it is being over worked. The colours were never as vibrant as I would have liked but this seems to be a common thing when using acrylics.

I moved onto Gouache paints. These gave a much flatter effect with less layers. The colours also seem to be more vibrant then the acrylics previously used.  When trying out texture and brush strokes the gouache seemed to work better and has a much smother flow. I also found it easier to blend as gouache is reactivated with water, unlike the acrylics. This is one of the flaws I have with the medium, it’s good for blending but it makes layering slightly more difficult as the previous layers tent to lift.

Painting 1

 Once I had a good idea for the mediums I began to translate them into a character. I chose Grasshopper for the initial experiments as I found him fun to draw.  The first attempt to translate Grasshopper to mid-century didn’t go too well. To begin the drawing I created the line work using India ink and a brush. Using Gouache I coloured the Grasshopper and tried to add a bit of texture. I was happy with the line work but the colour choice was a bit poor as it comes across as dark. I applied the yellow highlights over the green which took a lot of the vibrancy out of the colour. Despite this the textures came out OK but I think they could be better.

Painting 2

  Attempt number two consisted of two quick paintings of Grasshopper using Gouache. This time I didn’t paint any line work and just tried to depict Grasshopper using all Gouache. These results work much better in my opinion. I use more colourful Greens and let the Yellow have its own space. This resulted in a more vibrant and interesting depiction of the character.

Painting 3

Attempt three was trying to combine the two. I still wanted an element of line work in my designs so I brought back the India ink. When the line work was complete I coloured it using Gouache. I tried to use similar bright colours as with example two. After it was dry I then added a lot of brush texture to give it more of the mid-century look. I’m fairly happy with the final result bur I think this one has lost the mid-century look. 

Painting 4

With my final attempt I went back to the basics. This time I tried to make the image as flat as possible and use no texture. Instead of starting with the line work I started with the block colours, then adding a green line work over the top. To do the line work I used green Gouache. This image is by far the simplest of the bunch but it seems the most mid-century.

Deciding to experiment further I translated some other character designs itto the style I used in the final drawing. This led to a drawing of James, Ladybird, Earthworm and Centipede. I found these to work very well and the character come across as more cuddly. Centipede is probably the best example and I think this works for the character as well as the story.

Once I had complete all this work I was left with mixed feelings about the whole idea. I like the gouache paintings I have done but I feel it strays from my drawing style. I miss the fact I won’t use as much line work with this style but it might be a worthwhile sacrifice.