Product Illustration

For this product illustration, we had a choice of subject matter: cell phone, #2 pencil, X-Acto knife or a soda can or bottle. I chose to do a soda can because I wanted to use color and I don't mind rendering some text. I did a Canada Dry can (not Canadian Mist, Rusty) in gouache on illustration board. I picked the can because it had a fairly simple logo and big, heavy type. I tried to make the illustration as tight and realistic as possible and added the background to spice it up a bit.

First Gouache

After finally learning how to pronounce it, I created my first gouache painting. I started off covering the entire frog with green and then "pushed" the paint out from the shape to create the highlights and went back in with darker colors for the shadows. I actually think the tree branch looks especially good because the gouache dried in sort of a bark texture. I also like how the background turned out. I didn't do anything except leave the watered-down paint there after I pushed it out of the frog shape in the beginning, but it creates a kind of glow around the frog that draws your attention to it.

Large Watercolor

This was my first 22 x 30 watercolor. I think it turned out pretty well considering it was my first time working on such a large piece of paper. It was a little intimidating at first, but I used large brushes so it proportionally didn't take much longer than one of my smaller ones. I did add more detail than usual to make it more interesting since there was a larger space to keep the viewer's interest. Thanks to Terry, I did the trick on the lighthouse where I put down color and then used plain water to spread the color out, creating a soft shadow. The fan brush was also helpful in the grassy areas.

Illustration: Watercolor & Pen/Ink Together

The assignment here was to make 10 watercolors that used both pen/ink and watercolor, 5 of which we were supposed to do the line drawing first and then watercolor, and 5 that were the opposite. I ended up liking the ones that had line drawing then watercolor on the best. Maybe that’s because the drawing was already there when I put the color on so it seemed more forgiving when the watercolor was out of my control. I enjoy the look where there is white paper showing between the watercolor and line.

Illustration: Watercolor & Matching Line Drawings

This assignment was to create 10 watercolors and 10 matching line drawings with the subject being a combination of landscapes and architecture. I enjoyed doing the line drawings because there was more of a sense of control. I seemed to use the line drawings as comps of the later watercolors so I knew where the positioning should go in the watercolors. This made the watercolors easier because I already had an idea of where elements should go and where the highlights and shadows should be. The line drawings forced me to map out where the values should go.

The barn line drawing was probably one of my most successful because of all the different variations of line type: direction, cross-hatch, and squiggly. I liked how the sky turned out on the boat/sunset watercolor. I used paper towels for the texture and blotted out some of the color.

Illustration: Watercolor Architecture

For this homework, we were to do 10 watercolors of architecture. I had some trouble with this one, mostly because I was too impatient to let the backgrounds of my pictures dry before attempting to do the detail work at the end. I was still getting used to knowing how long it takes for the layers of watercolor to dry. As you can see in the picture, the sky background and the top of the roof merge together a little bit because they were both wet when I attempted to do them separately. It needs more detail to make it look more finished.

Illustration: Watercolor Landscape

For this landscape watercolor, I created the sky correctly. I put down a wash of color and then let it dry a bit before adding more color to it. This way, it’s not just a mess of watery color and I get neat “backwash” effects where one color runs into another when it’s almost dry, creating edges between them. I also used a good amount of pigment in this one so it’s very vibrant. Another thing that worked out well was that I let the sky almost completely dry before adding the foreground so they didn’t mix together.