Feb 14, 2011

Red Riding Hood

I've been working on a lot of personal work recently. After The Sketchbook Project, I missed working digitally so I made a few illustrations for fun. I love illustrating versions of children's tales because everyone is familiar with them and there are so many interpretations. This is my version of Red Riding Hood:



Typically my sketches start like this:


They're always messy in my sketchbook. Then I scan them and clean them up in Illustrator. I usually end up liking the messy sketches more than the polished ones. But cleaning the drawings up are still fun. I love playing around with color. I was experimenting with a limited color palette.



I love Illustrator because you can reproduce elements of the illustration without having to re-draw them. Its a huge time saver. I'm not sure how I feel about these randomly placed patterns. I still feel like it needs a lot of work, but over all I'm pretty happy with it. I kind of went overboard with all the pattern fills.

I like to vary the mediums I work with because sometimes I lose focus if I'm working on the same thing for too long. Back in November-December I was working heavily with my sewing projects. January was traditional media such as pencils and watercolors. February-March looks like I'm working on digital projects. Its a nice change of pace I think :) I don't feel burned out!

Speaking of Red Riding Hood... I didn't realize that there was a movie coming out! It looks like this version is a werewolf movie!


I'm not sure if I'm convinced if its going to be good (I'll probably watch it anyway). I love the mythology of werewolves... but they never seem to translate well on film. I have yet to find a good werewolf movie. This looks like it has potential. I really like the casting and the cinematography so far! We'll see :)

3 comments:

Phil said...

'Ello 'Ello, Mate! :D

Stupid question, but humour me... When you say Illustrator, you mean Adobe, right? If so, what's it like, would you recommend it?

I don't think I do as near as much as you do with the digital medium, but that's mostly because I have no scanner anymore or Illistrator!

I know what you mean about the messy sketches! I used to not want to even colour mine in with tradtional pens and pencils! haha But hey, Little Red Riding Hood looks like a happy Bunny!

And it looks ok, the pattern looks like something I could see on a Child's backpack!

Werewold films? Hmmm not a lot of good ones are there? I found 'Dog Soldiers' OK? Not a bad Brit Werewolf film!

Hope ya secret plans are going good!

Regards,

- Phil

Sarah said...

@Phil Yep, every time I mention "Illustrator" I'm either referring to Adobe or my aspiring profession. It gets confusing sometimes because they're two different things yet related. I recommend it only if you can devote the time into it. Honestly when I first started using it, I hated its guts! There's a really huge learning curve to get over first before you feel comfortable with Illustrator. But once you get over that, Illustrator can be your best friend :) I prefer it over Photoshop when I draw.

Someone recommended Dog Soldiers to me before! I still have to check it out! I've seen An American Werewolf in London and American Werewolf in Paris and 'Cursed' recently. They were fun to watch but still really corny.

Secret plans are ongoing...(but very good!)

Unknown said...

Ah! So cute!! I love Red's fairytale and your illustration is SO adorable. It would be cute printed on fabric for a little girls dress. :) I also always end up liking the messy sketches more than the polished ones. Always!

I am actually REALLY excited for the new movie and I hope it's at least decent!! Everyone is already knocking on it, saying it's too much like a Twilight type movie. I've never seen any good werewolf movies, but I LOVE reading werewolf stories. The Mercy Thompson series is so good. I actually have it on our eNook and re-read it constantly :) (Werewolves>Vampires) Let's hope the movie is good!!