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Hi everyone !
As I can't really draw much these days, I propose you a series of journals detailing my process when painting "Into the Woods"
![[Morgan le Fay] Into the Woods by Aliciane](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/8ee051fd-774f-41e4-8f59-85d58425df90/dc82512-a904761f-6c80-43d6-9ef0-6f9df4735868.png/v1/fit/w_300,h_849,q_70,strp/_morgan_le_fay__into_the_woods_by_aliciane_dc82512-300w.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODQ5IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvOGVlMDUxZmQtNzc0Zi00MWU0LThmNTktODVkNTg0MjVkZjkwXC9kYzgyNTEyLWE5MDQ3NjFmLTZjODAtNDNkNi05ZWYwLTZmOWRmNDczNTg2OC5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9NjAwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.yLdglOi8XfXCpbD3mHgzPXCXGonMEQq99eDM6sA3R5E "[Morgan le Fay] Into the Woods by Aliciane")
As I can't really draw much these days, I propose you a series of journals detailing my process when painting "Into the Woods"
Summary
I - CompositionII - Preparation
III - Execution
III - Execution
1. Indoor referencing
At this stage, I will usually direct my efforts toward refining the focal point of the painting first. If that part works, then most of the job is done as the rest of the painting is pretty much just here to support that area
So I started by doing a photoshoot with my husband. Usually, I model for my female characters, but at this time, I was heavily pregnant so I had to avoid jumping, and my silhouette wasn't really fit for the job anyway
thankfully I have the most supportive husband, and he agreed to be shot jumping around, wearing silly props and such 
For privacy reasons, I won't be posting any full photograph, but here are some details of the photos we took :
So, my arms and his legs, basically we used a nearby window as our main light source to mimic the painting's lighting scenario. I also own a set of studio lights that I use when I need to setup a more specific light setting. Shooting references always involves a good deal of imagination when it comes to which objects or clothes could serve as placeholders for the real things. I strongly encourage you to have a look at this excellent article on the blog Muddy Colors for some amazing examples of reference setups !
I then lowered the opacity of the sketch at about 30% and started to paint the character below the sketch layer, using it as a guide. Then I deactivated that sketch layer to polish it. For this part, I was exceptionally working at 50% zoom because this had to be the most detailed part of the entire painting. Here is a close-up of what she looked like at the previous step vs the finished result; hopefully you will see how the details from the shots above influenced many of the changes and details here !
2. Outdoor referencing
Sometimes the visual information you're looking for just can't be setup inside. I wasn't satisfied with how I initially painted the stream and the small waterfalls. It looked stiff and repetitive, something that tends to happen a lot to me when working from imagination. My brain has a strong tendency to come up with order and regular patterns. It struggles a lot with creating the randomness and unpredictability that characterizes natural and organic shapes.
So we went for a hike in a nearby natural park which featured, guess what, streams and waterfalls ! Thankfully it had rained a couple of days before our hike, so there was a ton of water compared to the previous time I hiked there
I took a ton of photos and spend a lot of time observing the water flowing. Here are some samples :
And here is the comparison between my first attempt at painting the water vs the finished result. I just wanted to add that with the exception of the focal point, I did all the detailing and the polishing of the other areas of the painting at 33% zoom, so including this one
I honestly don't really know what else I could be telling you about my process and my methods, but don't hesitate to ask me if you have any question !
III - Execution
III - Execution
1. Indoor referencing
At this stage, I will usually direct my efforts toward refining the focal point of the painting first. If that part works, then most of the job is done as the rest of the painting is pretty much just here to support that area
So I started by doing a photoshoot with my husband. Usually, I model for my female characters, but at this time, I was heavily pregnant so I had to avoid jumping, and my silhouette wasn't really fit for the job anyway
thankfully I have the most supportive husband, and he agreed to be shot jumping around, wearing silly props and such For privacy reasons, I won't be posting any full photograph, but here are some details of the photos we took :So, my arms and his legs, basically
we used a nearby window as our main light source to mimic the painting's lighting scenario. I also own a set of studio lights that I use when I need to setup a more specific light setting. Shooting references always involves a good deal of imagination when it comes to which objects or clothes could serve as placeholders for the real things. I strongly encourage you to have a look at this excellent article on the blog Muddy Colors for some amazing examples of reference setups !With all this material, I made a more accurate sketch of Morgan on a new layer on top of my current painting layer. Here is the comparison with my original sketch from imagination :
I then lowered the opacity of the sketch at about 30% and started to paint the character below the sketch layer, using it as a guide. Then I deactivated that sketch layer to polish it. For this part, I was exceptionally working at 50% zoom because this had to be the most detailed part of the entire painting. Here is a close-up of what she looked like at the previous step vs the finished result; hopefully you will see how the details from the shots above influenced many of the changes and details here !
2. Outdoor referencing
Sometimes the visual information you're looking for just can't be setup inside. I wasn't satisfied with how I initially painted the stream and the small waterfalls. It looked stiff and repetitive, something that tends to happen a lot to me when working from imagination. My brain has a strong tendency to come up with order and regular patterns. It struggles a lot with creating the randomness and unpredictability that characterizes natural and organic shapes.
So we went for a hike in a nearby natural park which featured, guess what, streams and waterfalls ! Thankfully it had rained a couple of days before our hike, so there was a ton of water compared to the previous time I hiked there
I took a ton of photos and spend a lot of time observing the water flowing. Here are some samples :And here is the comparison between my first attempt at painting the water vs the finished result. I just wanted to add that with the exception of the focal point, I did all the detailing and the polishing of the other areas of the painting at 33% zoom, so including this one
I honestly don't really know what else I could be telling you about my process and my methods, but don't hesitate to ask me if you have any question !
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Hi everyone !
As I can't really draw much these days, I propose you a series of journals detailing my process when painting "Into the Woods"
As I can't really draw much these days, I propose you a series of journals detailing my process when painting "Into the Woods"
Summary
I - Composition
II - Preparation
III - Execution
II - Preparation
1. Sketch
II - Preparation
III - Execution
II - Preparation
1. Sketch
This was done mostly from imagination. I wasn't really concerned with the details and the realism at this point. My main goal was to refine the main shapes of my thumbnail. For instance, I tried to make sure that my rocks were of varying sizes, and that everything was flowing in a pleasant way. I also started to establish some very rough indications of light, as seen on the rocks. At this point, my layer stack looked like that :
Before starting to actually paint, I toned my greyscale layer and boosted its contrast. It was done with a combination of levels, colorize and color balance filters. I wanted the value contrast to be strong enough because it actually helps me when I paint in colors. I have a tendency to pick colors that are not light nor dark enough, so when I apply them on an already rather light or dark surface, it makes me realize how shy I've been when picking this color. Hope that makes sense
As for the coloring, I've chosen an earthy/sepia main tone because it's a color that will naturally occur in many of that painting's elements such as trunks, dirt, water, rocks... So if some of that color remains visible, it's will actually be a good thing because it won't seem out of place and it will help tie everything together. My current layer stack was :
Let's just address a couple of technical details first. This is a single page illustration for a children's book that will be printed in A4 format, which is 21x29.7 cm. Since I want the painting to be printable at 300 dpi, the full size of my illustration is 2480x3508 px. For every single step in this part, I was working at a 25% zoom, which allowed me to efficiently work on the painting as a whole without getting tempted to add any details too soon.
4. Cleaning
For the next step, I deactivated my sketch layer and merged my rough colors with my underpainting. I then duplicated it, only to keep a backup in case I messed up everything. And this will basically be my layer strategy from now on : painting on a single layer, but regularly duplicating it before attempting anything major, complicated or that I would be unsure of. So the layer stack would be something like :
). So each time I progress to a different stage, I save my working file under a new name.
So at this stage, I am still working at 25% zoom, without my sketch layer this time, and my goal is to refine and correct the whole thing before going any further into the details. That includes correcting those contrast issues in the sky, cleaning all the edges that looked ragged and dirty without the sketch, and adding a bit more light and dark areas here and there. If the painting looks good at this stage, I honestly think that 90% of the work is already done, even if nothing is at its finished stage yet
Next time I'll talk about the detailing part, with some explanations on the references I took to take several areas to the next level !
- Sketch
- Greyscale
2. Underpainting
Before starting to actually paint, I toned my greyscale layer and boosted its contrast. It was done with a combination of levels, colorize and color balance filters. I wanted the value contrast to be strong enough because it actually helps me when I paint in colors. I have a tendency to pick colors that are not light nor dark enough, so when I apply them on an already rather light or dark surface, it makes me realize how shy I've been when picking this color. Hope that makes sense
As for the coloring, I've chosen an earthy/sepia main tone because it's a color that will naturally occur in many of that painting's elements such as trunks, dirt, water, rocks... So if some of that color remains visible, it's will actually be a good thing because it won't seem out of place and it will help tie everything together. My current layer stack was :
- Sketch [50% opacity]
- Sepia underpainting
3. Rough colors
Let's just address a couple of technical details first. This is a single page illustration for a children's book that will be printed in A4 format, which is 21x29.7 cm. Since I want the painting to be printable at 300 dpi, the full size of my illustration is 2480x3508 px. For every single step in this part, I was working at a 25% zoom, which allowed me to efficiently work on the painting as a whole without getting tempted to add any details too soon.
So, with my sketch still on top as a guide, I started applying some colors. I took inspiration from the color key I had made for a previous version, which I still liked. Please note how, despite my precautions, I lost a lot of contrast especially in the sky area that said, I don't think you should use your full value range at this stage because you want to keep some of your lightest lights for small highlights and some of your darkest darks for dark accents and occlusion shadows. My current layer stack was :
that said, I don't think you should use your full value range at this stage because you want to keep some of your lightest lights for small highlights and some of your darkest darks for dark accents and occlusion shadows. My current layer stack was :- Sketch [50% opacity]
- Rough colors
- Sepia underpainting
4. Cleaning
For the next step, I deactivated my sketch layer and merged my rough colors with my underpainting. I then duplicated it, only to keep a backup in case I messed up everything. And this will basically be my layer strategy from now on : painting on a single layer, but regularly duplicating it before attempting anything major, complicated or that I would be unsure of. So the layer stack would be something like :
- Sketch [Invisible]
- Current painting layer
- Previous painting layer
- Previous painting layer
- Rough colors + Underpainting
). So each time I progress to a different stage, I save my working file under a new name.So at this stage, I am still working at 25% zoom, without my sketch layer this time, and my goal is to refine and correct the whole thing before going any further into the details. That includes correcting those contrast issues in the sky, cleaning all the edges that looked ragged and dirty without the sketch, and adding a bit more light and dark areas here and there. If the painting looks good at this stage, I honestly think that 90% of the work is already done, even if nothing is at its finished stage yet
Next time I'll talk about the detailing part, with some explanations on the references I took to take several areas to the next level !
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Hi everyone !
As I can't really draw much these days, I propose you a series of journals detailing my process when painting "Into the Woods"
II - Preparation
III - Execution
To give you a bit of context, this image is a single-page illustration for a children's book I'm working on about the Arthurian Legends, entitled "Morgan le Fay". Morgan is actually the little girl featured on this painting, as this takes place at the very beginning of the story, when she was still living in Tintagel with both of her parents ^^
So, as a children's book illustration, there's going to be text added on the image, hence the empty part at the bottom on the final image.
As I can't really draw much these days, I propose you a series of journals detailing my process when painting "Into the Woods"
Summary
I - CompositionII - Preparation
III - Execution
I - Composition
To give you a bit of context, this image is a single-page illustration for a children's book I'm working on about the Arthurian Legends, entitled "Morgan le Fay". Morgan is actually the little girl featured on this painting, as this takes place at the very beginning of the story, when she was still living in Tintagel with both of her parents ^^
So, as a children's book illustration, there's going to be text added on the image, hence the empty part at the bottom on the final image.
1. First draft - September 2016
Huh, where do I start... Well overall this is very messy and unreadable. At the time, I was relying way too much on my references and I slavishly copy-painted elements from various photos I had taken without a lot of thoughts about the composition. As a result, Morgan blends way too much with the background, the values are all over the place (there are tiny bits of light everywhere), the tree on the right is way too detailed and grabs too much attention, and the background awkwardly blends into nothingness near the top where I intended to put the text at the time.
It is cluttered and claustrophobic and I consider this an example of bad composition it is also way too detailed for an initial thumbnail. But I didn't know better at the time, and since I had a lot of other paintings ongoing, it simply waited in a folder for a while.
It is cluttered and claustrophobic and I consider this an example of bad composition
it is also way too detailed for an initial thumbnail. But I didn't know better at the time, and since I had a lot of other paintings ongoing, it simply waited in a folder for a while.2. Second draft - April 2017
When I went back to this drawing, I decided to kinda scrap out most of my first draft and work more from my imagination. I just kept the pose (but simplified her hair). Overall this is way more readable, with clear blocks of light and dark, and much more representative of how I approach thumbnails and composition nowadays
Since I was satisfied enough with it at the time, I took it a couple of steps further in June 2017 by properly sketching Morgan and making a color key. And then it sat there for a while, again, because I was insecure with jumping right into it ^^'
Honestly, I still consider my second draft quite good and it could have worked and made an interesting painting. However, for the specific needs of the book, I felt like it didn't really fit the bill. First, I intended to put the text at the bottom this time, yet didn't really planned my composition around it. I simply darkened the bottom of the picture, thinking it would be enough. But when I looked at it with the text on, it felt really squeezed and cluttered, it wasn't breathing enough (does it make sense ?).
I also wasn't a fan of the giant waterfall I put behind her. This was a remnant of my first draft where there was a tiny waterfall behind the character. Since I wanted the silhouette of Morgan to be really detached from the background this time, I simply made a bigger waterfall But this kind of huge waterfalls don't really exist in the forests where the story takes place... It was a bit too much for what was supposed to be a rather ordinary forest location, and it felt like a cheap solution.
I also thought there were problems with the perspective and scale, and that one single tree appearing from the left didn't really sell the forest theme enough. Overall it looked more like a mountainous location than a forest to me. So I went back to the drawing board and made a very, very rough value sketch of what I would change :
This time I used a placeholder for the estimate length of the text so, yes it looks kinda sketchy, messy and unfinished, but I had realized at this point that a rough thumbnail did not have to look pretty. I was more thinking of it as notes about the size and placement of the various elements of the painting, hence the flat silhouette for the character for instance. The rest can, and should, wait until you work on more advanced stages. Right now I wanted to freely move, resize, and distort my shapes, think more about their relative sizes, spacing, negative spaces and so on
And then... Well it sat there for a while until I had gathered enough courage and motivation to tell myself "Please call this composition good enough and just paint it now !" which will be the subject of the next journals
Since I was satisfied enough with it at the time, I took it a couple of steps further in June 2017 by properly sketching Morgan and making a color key. And then it sat there for a while, again, because I was insecure with jumping right into it ^^'
3. Third draft - November 2017
Honestly, I still consider my second draft quite good and it could have worked and made an interesting painting. However, for the specific needs of the book, I felt like it didn't really fit the bill. First, I intended to put the text at the bottom this time, yet didn't really planned my composition around it. I simply darkened the bottom of the picture, thinking it would be enough. But when I looked at it with the text on, it felt really squeezed and cluttered, it wasn't breathing enough (does it make sense ?
).I also wasn't a fan of the giant waterfall I put behind her. This was a remnant of my first draft where there was a tiny waterfall behind the character. Since I wanted the silhouette of Morgan to be really detached from the background this time, I simply made a bigger waterfall
But this kind of huge waterfalls don't really exist in the forests where the story takes place... It was a bit too much for what was supposed to be a rather ordinary forest location, and it felt like a cheap solution. I also thought there were problems with the perspective and scale, and that one single tree appearing from the left didn't really sell the forest theme enough. Overall it looked more like a mountainous location than a forest to me. So I went back to the drawing board and made a very, very rough value sketch of what I would change :
This time I used a placeholder for the estimate length of the text
so, yes it looks kinda sketchy, messy and unfinished, but I had realized at this point that a rough thumbnail did not have to look pretty. I was more thinking of it as notes about the size and placement of the various elements of the painting, hence the flat silhouette for the character for instance. The rest can, and should, wait until you work on more advanced stages. Right now I wanted to freely move, resize, and distort my shapes, think more about their relative sizes, spacing, negative spaces and so on And then... Well it sat there for a while until I had gathered enough courage and motivation to tell myself "Please call this composition good enough and just paint it now !" which will be the subject of the next journals
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Vegetable peelers are evil
1 min read
I'm back \o/ And hem, I injured myself with a vegetable peeler and got a nasty cut on the eyebrow... @_@
If you're wondering how the hell does one hurt its eyebrow while peeling a carrot, I actually hurt my thumb and lifted my arm very quickly in reaction, thus hitting my face with my own hand, still holding the peeler. This is how...
I had to go to the hospital and I got a couple of stitches. It will maybe leave me a scar, just above my left eye.
So, sorry for the crappy sketch, that's just me telling myself that at least I'll join a couple of badass characters in the scarred left eye club x)
(Oh, and if you know about other characters, go ahead XD)
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Next-week end, I'll be at the artist alley of a Fantasy convention held in Nice, hence the name
Since it takes place in France, I assume only French-speaking people will attend, so I'll display the details in French. If you wish to know more though, feel free to ask me !
C'est quoi ?
Nice-Fictions c'est un jeune festival niçois dédié à l'imaginaire sous toutes ses formes. Seront présents de nombreux auteurs, éditeurs, et évidemment illustrateurs. Sont organisées dédicaces, conférences, ateliers, tournois de jeux, expositions...
L'entrée est gratuite, donc si par hasard certains de mes watchers n'habitent pas trop loin, n'hésitez pas à aller y faire un tour et à passer me faire un petit coucou ^^
C'est quand ?
Du 22 au 24 Avril, ce week-end donc, de 10h à 19h
C'est où ?
Sur le campus universitaire de Saint-Jean-d'Angely, à Nice. Plus d'infos sur l'accès au festival ici.
Since it takes place in France, I assume only French-speaking people will attend, so I'll display the details in French. If you wish to know more though, feel free to ask me !
C'est quoi ?
Nice-Fictions c'est un jeune festival niçois dédié à l'imaginaire sous toutes ses formes. Seront présents de nombreux auteurs, éditeurs, et évidemment illustrateurs. Sont organisées dédicaces, conférences, ateliers, tournois de jeux, expositions... L'entrée est gratuite, donc si par hasard certains de mes watchers n'habitent pas trop loin, n'hésitez pas à aller y faire un tour et à passer me faire un petit coucou ^^
C'est quand ?
Du 22 au 24 Avril, ce week-end donc, de 10h à 19h
C'est où ?
Sur le campus universitaire de Saint-Jean-d'Angely, à Nice. Plus d'infos sur l'accès au festival ici.
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