pub sign development

this project has been in work for some time going through countless altercations but i think it is close to finished, i have been saying this for a little while but a change in the colouring process has made it seem all the more final.

 when i was water colouring and layering inks over the top the more organic subjects benefited, it complemented the textures of fur and the natural world in general. However the more graphic elements looked little more than a mess, getting a solid fill with water colour is something of a difficult task best left for the digital, and yet

 when i was applying solid fills of digital colour to the more graphic elements the whole image looked disjointed, fortunately after a bit of experimenting and tutor advice i decided to combine the two techniques- watercolour swatches and digital fills to give solid colour some texture. the end result is below and looks the most final of all the various outcomes i have produced for this brief.

this rather scruffy page is the swatch that has been repurposed all over the above image, any digital colouring was layered with an amount of water colour texture. It softens the otherwise quite heavy and dull digital colour that comes with a solid fill of digital colour. 

more pub development

nearly finished with this brief, yet to edit the central crown and add a font but other than that it is very nearly there- at long last. working with watercolour on separate pieces of paper has been a really quick and effective way to colour this piece fuss free.

above is the majority of the image coloured, a few little touch ups remaining, and below is most likely how it will look. the original is set against a black background so i might apply that my own design, it really makes the details and colours of the image stand out. 

more pub stuff

the first image is the culmination of the two scans from the preceding post, it brings a bit more life into the lines, although a digital counterpart might be a useful exercise in experimentation.

combined with the more graphic details the design becomes more recognisable, a bit of colour on the shield,  gold details as well as the jewellery and helmet and it might nearly be finished. undecided as to whether or not it will be framed with a black background. 

pub sign- continued

this project has proved to be something of a love and hate relationship, i love working on it but hate the end results. I hit a rut and so decided to re pencil the drawing to make the hair appear more natural and give the animals a bit of energy, i will post the pencils when i get round to scanning them in the meantime the inks.

 

fresh from the scanner the inks (above) and some rough water colouring, my reason for the latter is something of an experiment. it means i can apply the washes digitally with none of the commitment of having to paint over the originals. the inks took several attempts on rice paper and then eventually i settled on cartridge, the main aim was to beef the lines up a bit.