This is the first post I have ever made to a blog I hope it works. I'm at the very beginning of my journey to be an illustrator and I'm starting to put a portfolio together, so any suggestions would be helpful. In this illustration I'm trying to blend an illustrated space with a more pattern area, but I'm not sure if it is working yet.
6 comments:
Hi Wendy, I love panda bears and bamboo, so I am partial to your subject matter to start. :) I love that the panda is having tea and the red tea pot.
However, cute as it is, there are several places of awkwardness. He needs a friend to have tea with, maybe? :) Also I would suggest a vertical bamboo table for the tea set and maybe some chairs.
The pattern at the bottom has nice colors and form, but it doesn't suit the cuteness of the bear. I would consider dropping the pattern and just creating a cute scene with the panda.
Your watercolor work is very nice, so keep working on it. It will get there. :)
Best wishes and welcome.
Christy
Hi wendy! The colors really stand out on the round patterns, and I too love pandas :) i'm looking at this on my cell phone while I wait for my flight home, and I noticed that it does look a little unbalanced top vs bottom. A little too light on the top vs the pattern at the bottom. So I turned my phone upside down. Now the pattern is at the top, looking a little like a big umbrella or a hut, and I realized it helped. If you do decide to resketch the composition, try that and see how you feel about the pattern at the top instead of the bottom. Perhaps you could add a tray or small table then to balance the top, or a friend panda like the first suggestion. Hope this helps you in finishing it, and I'd definitely love to see how it turns out.
What a cute little panda. He looks a tad lonely without his friend!
I do a lot of Art Nouveau. It often uses multiple patterns within the subject matter. If you go and look at some of it, you will see that the patterns are usually something that complements the subject, either in repetition, theme or color.
Your patterned balls do not do this. Try to use the wonderful texture of bamboo instead, or the patterns of black and white that Pandas are so well known for.
Watercolor is a difficult media, you appear to have a good grasp in using color.
PS. for us old fogies with aging eyes it would be helpful for a bigger image to show on the click. Pretty please?
I personally love this piece. The emotion and story behind the panda makes me love it all the more. I know there really isn't a story, but it wasn't hard for me to make one up in my head. I also enjoy the color palette.
Yet I like the suggestion of using the pattern at the top and the imbalance between top of illustration vs bottom of illustration. I'd re-sketch it because the panda, teapot, and bamboo are great! And I think you can incorporate pattern, but it's gonna take practice and time for it to work.
Like Lyon said, the Nouveau artists knew how to do it and it's amazing! So maybe do some research. It always helps. :)
Ha, so I'm home now, kind of down with the flu, and looking at this on my blessed desktop. I'd like to add to my earlier post: I totally agree with what Lyon has said (by the way, one of my favorite artists of all time is Mucha!) so I got to thinking about the bamboo and how it can echo the roundness of the pattern. Perhaps if the bamboo leaves grew in round fronds and the pattern in turn echo the way the fronds grow...? Anyway, that's just a suggestion - though to be honest, I am now blissfully sipping some hot chocolate and waiting for the Nyquil to kick in ^_^
I just adore this piece, the panda looks so sweet and introverted! It actually doesn't bother me that he is having tea alone, because that is something I do often and I can relate to this sweet little scene. It appeals to the shy kid in me.
I like the colors you have used in the pattern a lot, it helps unify the picture with the red teapot. I wouldn't want to see it go away entirely because it *is* interesting and unifies the color scheme. However I think my problem with the pattern is its sense of grounding -- right now it is kind of floating a little too randomly, and where the texture in the background changes to the diagonal lines it doesn't really fit the textures of the rest of the piece. I like the suggestion of maybe a little table, and maybe the pattern could be made smaller and go up and around instead of just on the bottom. If you grounded it with a little grassy meadow or suchlike, I think it would have a good balance of real environment vs. whimsical pattern.
I'd love to see more of this little guy! A very endearing character!
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