Lately I’ve been practicing lines and colouring and light and shadow, as I work on simple little critters. I find as I keep going through these SVSlearn.com classes, I’m adding lots of helpful voices to my head. Will Terry talking about taking it down to the ‘essence’ of the thing you want to draw. Jake Parker helping me figure out and practice lines. Lee White talking me through steps in shadows and light. And even though I’m still making baby steps, I’m really grateful for those voices. One I’m tuning into a lot lately is from Lee White’s light and shadow for illustrators course. In one of the last lessons, he talks about finding your own style, by going through different books and works of art and explaining how you can try to realistically render things, or leave them more stylized.
And it’s all good.
Phew.
Somewhere in my brain, I’d picked up the idea that if it didn’t look like a Disney movie, it wasn’t good, or at least it was at a very beginner stage. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I know there is a lot of great stylized art out there. But somewhere that thought wedged itself in, and I hated it, because I really like stylized art. I love the way it leaves room for the story. For your own imagination. For communicating ideas, and not just portraying an exact replica of action.
Still lots to figure out, but I’m excited to see where this goes.