I'm taking a break from the "experiment" image this week to work on a few other projects. One of these projects is a family portrait of an adorable couple and their cat. It's still in the sketch phase and needs some work, but I'm loving it so far and I thought I would share it.
This edition is another version of my standard digital style. This one has no outlines. It looks quite a bit different form the other 2 I've already completed. Having no heavy black outlines is the main reason, but I also fiddled with the value of the colors. Without the black lines separating the colors, the cat seemed to disappear into the rug, especially when checking out the values in gray scale. I did try making the shadows black, but didn't like how that looked, so I ended up making the colors of the rug less bold. I think that really helped the cat to stand out. I was trying to stick with 2 values per color (main color and shadow color), but I am interested to see what it would look like if there was a 3 or even 4th value added. Maybe I'll try expanding on that soon.
It's been fun to see the evolution of this image over the past 3 weeks.
I still want to try some things that I don't normally work with like adding textures and, gasp, digital painting. Stayed tuned to see what transpires!
In retrospect, I think I should have started off this venture by completing the image how I normally do. In order to play a little catch up, here's the piece using the more clean-lined approach I usually take when doing digital illustrations.
You may recognize the image below from the sketch I posted last week. I'm trying out some different techniques for completing illustrations to see which ones I would like to incorporate into my current repertoire. This is round 1. Over the next few weeks you'll be seeing this image a lot, with slight variations. I figured to get a good idea of what techniques work well for me and how each affects the finished product I should stay with a common image and color palate. At the end of my exploration, I'll line them all up and compare the results. Feel free to let me know what you think of each edition along the way.
I do have to thank Mr. E for inspiring the main image. This is his signature pose during the long, warm days of summer. He positions himself directly under the ceiling fan in the living room and lets the soft white fur on his stomach sway in the breeze. Since the temperature has been quite high the last few weeks, I've been seeing this display with increasing frequency.