"What is Cool?", 11x20 inches, Permanent marker stick and Gouache on Strathmore Medium Drawing Paper, 2009Permanent markers are great tools for creating expressive black and white images. They can provide deep true blacks as rich as India Ink or fine line details. My goal on this illustration was to use only a broad tip marker to create almost all of the details. Gouache (Titanium White) was used to carve out more delicate details around the face and hands. For this work I used a No. 3. round sable brush.
"What is Cool?", detailAs you can see in this detail of the illustration, I like to be inventive with the strokes I make using markers. The series of straight and swirling strokes along the right collar were designed to create a separation between the white highlight on the shirt and the white background. The fun part was coming up with a way to accomplish this without simply adding an outline. Being inventive leads to creative ways of solving basic problems. The total impact of the illustration will be more vibrant and interesting if you can avoid boring solutions to common issues in your image making.
When is it effective to "block in" an area?
I found it better to create large totally black areas in parts of this illustration. The reason for this was the high amount of complex textures in the photo. Too much information tires the eye and creates an overall busy appearance. Dropping out some areas like the shadow on the neck was a good idea here. However, the hair still has diagonal shards of white that I left intentionally to break up this shape.
Why the two different approaches?
The mass of the hair was too large a shape to simply render in solid black. Plus, the hair needs to appear light and "frizzy" as it is in the photo. My solution was to give the whole image more dynamic thrust by leaving diagonal areas of white in the hair and on darker shadow portions of the body, as well as the background. This becomes a unifying stylistic theme that pulls the whole illustration together. The verticality of these strokes makes the figure look more animated, always a good quality when trying to create a lifelike portrait.
When is it effective to "block in" an area?
I found it better to create large totally black areas in parts of this illustration. The reason for this was the high amount of complex textures in the photo. Too much information tires the eye and creates an overall busy appearance. Dropping out some areas like the shadow on the neck was a good idea here. However, the hair still has diagonal shards of white that I left intentionally to break up this shape.
Why the two different approaches?
The mass of the hair was too large a shape to simply render in solid black. Plus, the hair needs to appear light and "frizzy" as it is in the photo. My solution was to give the whole image more dynamic thrust by leaving diagonal areas of white in the hair and on darker shadow portions of the body, as well as the background. This becomes a unifying stylistic theme that pulls the whole illustration together. The verticality of these strokes makes the figure look more animated, always a good quality when trying to create a lifelike portrait.
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