Illuminating the Illustration: Child of Bloom

"Child of Bloom" is a character illustration of one of my characters from my Angelborn universe.  In this piece she is a child, but in the universe the audience has the chance to see her grow up.  I've actually focused much of my recent attention on the children (some of my friends are very familiar with Gavin and Amanda) of her and James, an Angelborn or Demi-Angelus she is sworn to protect.  She was actually kidnapped by an angel from her normal human life to take on the role of an abdal, or a substitute.  This has given her special abilities and a period of immortality until she can complete her duties.

Read more to view the process of creating this illustration.





Step One:  Looking


Before I even begin to draw, there is the external or internal phase of looking and observation.  In the case of this illustration, it was gathering an image in my subconscious and putting it to paper.  I'd just come from working with kids, so I had this feel I wanted to invoke.  What would it really feel like to come into a magic power as a child?  It would be a difference, so I couldn't imagine it being totally joyous.  Was it trepidation, confusion, anticipation?  A mixture?  With this illustration I wasn't long in this phase before I jumped to step two, and to be honest, the I often find myself iterating between the two as I think and sketch.


Step Two:  Sketching

The truth is, sketching is vital. Rough sketching is even more vital.  To capture the essence of an emotion in quick lines before finding form is a skill I had to teach myself.  To be honest, it still needs work.  Sketching relates to thinking on paper, like a visual brainstorm.  I discussed sketching in another recent blog:  "Sketching: Visually Communicating and Archiving Ideas".

 

If you look close at the sketch for Child of Bloom, there are a ton of lines.  There are light and dark lines, scratchy lines, and clear lines.  You can literally see me thinking about the image through the line work.  I used to clean up sketches to ink and color from the original page.  I've since stopped, because looking back at my visual thought process is a valuable experience for me.  In fact, in this piece, I can see where I was going to put a pony tail.  This started as a different character, before I realized that this piece was really going to be about the abdal.

Step 3:  Line Art

After sketching this piece, I took it to my lightbox.  From there, on recycled Bristol, I created a clean sketch for inking.  The next step was to ink with Sakura Micron and Graphic pens.  I used Graphic 2- Micron 08 on this piece because of the size.  Some fine detailing in the hair used Micron 01-05.


Step 4: Basic Color, Marker Technique

Next, I filled in some flat color with BIC Mark Its.  This helps mimic the effect of a colored paper, and makes it easier to cover the paper in color, whether you use pastel or watercolor.

Step 5:  Stretch Paper

Next, I stretch the paper.  I don't have proper tape for this, so just use masking tape.  It is better to get stretching tape as it is less likely to tear your paper when you remove it.  I stretched this piece on the base for a Clips frame from Ikea that I broke.  Waste not, my friends.


Step 6:  Watercolor Pencil and Wash

I love using watercolor and water soluble pencils to fill in soft color and help shade marker.  My own personal toolset for this piece included Derwent Watercolor Pencils and Derwent Inktense Pencils.  I love the Inktense with markers.  They are bright and when dry, hold fast (no bleeding with further washes).  This means when I use them, I must blend them well.  I use Aqua Flow Brushes for this stage.  However, it is worth the extra attention to be able to layer color over top of them.  This piece has a good mixture of both kinds of pencils, as the Inktense was too bright alone.

This piece, as many of mine do, also gets a special treatment.  I use Distress Inks by Ranger/Tim Holtz to soften colors and age the papers.  The background is entirely Distress Inks applied with their sponge pads and applicators in a circular motion.  This also added depth to her face and arms.

Step 7:  Pastel Pencil Highlighting


The final touches are done with Derwent Pastel pencil after the water washes dry!  This includes the leaves in the background, as well as highlighting.  This stage really brings the illustration to life and gives it depth.  I really think pastels and pastel pencils work great for adding soft "light" to 2D pieces.  Of course, blending them out with stumps really adds to the softening and light-like effects.


Step 8:  Final Illustration

In the end, I was able to take off the masking tape and reveal this illustration:

 To me it has really captured the essence of my abdal character.  Enjoy, and please, try these steps with your own work.  You'll be surprised what will come of it.

This illustration is available on Deviant Art as a print and on my Zazzle Store, Imaginings by Kristy in many forms, such as mugs, bags, magnets, and posters.

Just a friendly reminder, Angelborn is in production, and is © Kristy Cunningham, all rights reserved with no usage of characters, story or art allowed in any form without consent.