Drawing Villains

An evil enchanter as seen by H.J Ford.

Since my last post, I’ve finished the previous book illustration and started on the next one. In this new illustration readers are introduced to the over-arching nemesis of the series.

Traditionally, villains are ugly. Bad = Ugly, you know. But what about relatively normal-looking, evil characters? Or even deceptively handsome ones? Aren’t those representations all the more creepy because they don’t have huge bulbous noses or horns on their heads?

It's easy to recognize evil when
it looks devilish. Illustration by HJ Ford.

Interesting questions, eh? As I began the new drawing this morning, I found myself considering giving my villain some caricatured features in order to make him look more "evil." But that’s not how he’s described in the book (although he does have horns on his head – kind of) and I must draw him as I wrote him. This character's actions are extremely evil, though he hides them behind a "normal" face. As we are all aware, good and smooth looks can sometimes hide awful things beneath. If a heart is fetid and foul, or cold as ice, then evil will surely grow there.

I didn’t mean to make this a preachy post, but it seems that drawing villains is something of a moral issue for me.

A Peek Into My Creative Process

WIP - book illustration (copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2013)
Do not share, pin, re-post or in any way re-use this
picture without the artist's express permission.

As most of you know, art doesn’t usually spring forth, fully-formed, like Athena from Zeus’ noggin.’ Instead, it’s a deliberate process, sometimes requiring a great deal of tinkering to get just “right.” Myself, I’m not a fussy artist, constantly going over the same passage (whether in a story or in a painting) again and again until perfection is reached. Oh sure. I revise and build with care. But there’s a feeling you get when something is “right” or "complete" and I tend to stop somewhere around there. How do you get there? Through blind feeling, contemplation, and experimentation.

Pen and ink is an unforgiving medium that doesn’t handle mistakes well. Back in the day (before Photoshop), it was much more difficult. You needed to know the road you were taking with your piece and follow it boldly, pressing on without fear. This is still true now even if you can now make corrections later on the computer. You still need a road to follow.

The current book illustration is a bit of a deviation from the rest. It’s much more Heath Robinson and less H.J. Ford. What does that mean? It means it’s a more decorative panel, less busy, and much more “designed.” Why? Somehow this just fits the scene better. (Thank God I don’t have a publisher who’ll slap my hand and say, “No! It’s not consistent with the others. Do it over!" *blown raspberry*)

Contrast studies underway

As you can see in this photo, I’m currently doing contrast tests for the final illustration. I’ve made notes in the margins of things I like and things that aren’t working for me. I’ve already made some final decisions but haven’t figured all of it out yet. I won’t move forward with the final piece until I have all the details worked out on these photocopied test sheets. This may take a little time to work out, but it'll be worth the time for having the final piece balanced out to my satisfaction.

Okay, now back to our scheduled contemplations...

Quick Update

I’ve been working on the next book illustration for the past day or so. This drawing features a very tall character interacting with the heroine, who is petite. I am fascinated by Golden-Age illustrators who show giants (or giant-sized characters) with human proportions. They just made them extra-tall. Most contemporary artists/illustrators show taller/larger characters with smaller heads, proportionally. This makes the characters look less human. You can see this convention used in everything from manga (Japanese comics) to movies (trolls in movies like The Hobbit or Harry Potter.)

HJ Ford illustration showing a giant and
a regular-sized person (same proportions.)

I like the old-fashioned approach better. Not only is it quite charming, but it gives the viewer a much better sense of the size-differential between the characters (see above). I decided to use this older approach in my new book illustration, making my tall character a larger-proportioned person instead of "pushing" his proportions and making him looking weird or inhuman. I’m pleased with the over-all feeling of the piece so far.

Modern giants - trolls from the movie "The Hobbit."
Notice the strange proportions and the smallish heads.

More to come soon! Now, back to the drawing board...

Geeking Out - Anthropology Style

Illustration from "The Chief's Daughter" by HJ Ford

Franz Boas (1858 – 1942) is considered the "the Father of Modern Anthropology." He collected a great deal of cultural materials and folklore from Alaskan native groups, like those on Baffin Island. Of course, he did much more than that during his career, but the cultural materials he collected were quite significant. My undergraduate studies owed much to the study of Tlingit groups in Alaska and while in college I read quite a bit of Boas’ materials.

Imagine my surprise, while surfing through books on Project Gutenberg, to run across “The Strange Story Book,” by Mrs. Andrew Lang  (edited by Andrew Lang) and illustrated by HJ Ford (my current fave illustrator.) This book has several stories collected by Franz Boas and illustrated by HJ Ford! What could be better, I ask you? I was in total geek heaven! (Unfortunately, the book pretty far out of print so even more cheers for Project Gutenberg.  I just love that site!)

I have to admit to having a soft spot for Eskimo mythological stories (all groups) ever since studying Boas’ work in college. In fact, I tried my hand at writing an Eskimo myth for a scene in my novel. When I read the story to Matt he asked me if it was a real myth. I smiled and said, “no,” it was one of mine. One of the stories in The Strange Story Book, “The Chief’s Daughter,” is remarkably similar to the one I wrote for my own novel AND it has a lovely HJ Ford illustration to go along with it.

Be still my geeky heart. :-D

Daily Report: Initial Pen Drawing Completed

Book Illustration, Copyright Sara Light-Waller 2013

I've just completed the initial ink drawing for the next book illustration this morning. Now on the details! I thought I’d post the initial drawing here, as I was talking so much about it in my last post.

You can see Snow Wolf (as she was in the comic) sitting on the bike on the right. That’s it for her old look. From here it’s the steep slope to style for her, but you’ll see that when you read the book. ;-)

I’m having a lot of fun with these old-fashioned complex pen and ink drawings. They’re quite inspired by HJ Ford’s drawing style as seen in Andrew Lang’s colored fairy books but spiced with a hint of manga, and of course, the modern twist of 21^st century technology. Cool really.

Well under way

Okay, okay...I'm not going to show off too many of the new illustrations before the book is published but since I've started with this one, I thought I'd continue to follow its progress.

"This girl is under my protection"
Pen & ink - partially completed

At this point the piece is about 60% completed. The contrast still has quite a ways to go before it's correctly balanced, but the scene is now coming into focus. One of the nice things about the modern day is that if you can't find your opaque white (or if it's dried up from long disuse as mine has) you can always make corrections in Photoshop.

I'm using a variety of pens in this piece including a micron for the initial outlines (it doesn't smudge) and fountain pens (three different ones - Namiki Falcon, Noodler's Nib Creaper flex, and Noodler's Konrad flex all filled with Noodler's Black ink.) I'm working pretty large - 7"x10" on Bristol plate. As you might well imagine, it's much easier drawing details when you work larger. With pen & ink you want to shrink the final artwork down to at least 75% of the original size. I prefer to go with more like 50% of the original. Pen & ink drawings always looks better when decreased in size as the lines tighten up. You have to be careful with it though as if you shrink them too much all your lines might to close up so much that too much detail is lost. Getting it just right is a feel thing.

I'm going for a classic children's book look with these illustrations. Why...? Because I love the idea of a retro-sci-fi love story looking like it's something that you should be reading in bed. Cozy and romantic, at least that's the plan. I think adults should have their bedtime stories too.

So that's the report for tonight. I think it's time to put down my pens and head for bed. Goodnight to all!