Saturday, May 30, 2009

Sketches from a book I'm working on






Here are some sketches from a book I'm working on. The book was written by Margaret Read MacDonald and it's a compilation of friendship stories from around the world. Each story starts with one illustration and I've posted 4 illustrations from the book. What a dream job - the best thing about a project like this is that you never get bored from one image to the next and you don't have to worry about making the characters look the same from one page to the next.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Franklinmorel,

    If you can take drawing classes or look at "how to draw" books they will give you the basic skills you need - from there you can start to play around with shapes and positive/negative space relationships to give you a more personal stylized feel. I believe everyone has a personal style just waiting for them to discover. The key to unlocking this style is to get instruction, feedback, and drawing every day. My style was stuck in there and only after 4 years of college and 4-5 years of freelance illustration was it set free.

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  2. These are so cool Will! I think the 1st & 2nd are my favorites. I love all the shapes breaking out of the borders! (I need to try that!)

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  3. Hi Franklinmorel,

    I wish I could put lessons on my blog I've been asked to do that by several people but the problem is that I have so much illustration work I have no extra time for that. There are quite a few projects I'd like to do around my house - and I don't have time for them either. I'm working on 3 books and 2 book covers right now which leaves no time for any lessons.

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  4. Thanks Becky - I'm having a lot of fun with this book - sometimes I can't believe I'm getting paid to do something that's so fun.

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  5. Will, these are awesome as per usual. I really like the decorative feel. Nice shapes and nice, expressive storytelling.

    Do you mind if a write a comment to Franklinmorel?

    Hey, Franklinmorel. I think I know where you are coming from. I'm an illustrator just getting my start out of school. I love drawing and I can see why you would want to do it for fun. If you are interested then you should check out these books. They helped me get a good start and I still find them useful.

    How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (great book on the basics of drawing)

    Fantasy Cartooning and Action Cartooning by Ben Caldwell (two good books make a good introduction into how to draw simplified figures with interesting shapes)

    Facial Expressions by Mark Simon (hundreds of photos of faces to practice drawing from)

    Good luck in your drawing pursuits. If you have a blog I would love to see your progress.

    Will, I hope that wasn't overstepping my bounds as a commentator.

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  6. Fabulous tree, Will. You have a really great sense of rhythm in your design work. Nice areas of rest, nice details.

    And a great dirty monkey, to boot!

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