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Profile: James Green
What are your tools of the trade?
First off it all starts with an aim, my aim for this was to do a piece that was completely unrelated to anything I am involved with at the moment self project and other wise, I wanted something especially for Letraset that I, myself had not done before as I continuously keep working on projects and fan art and I wanted to detatch myself completely from that side of things. So...seeing many influences like my friend Valeriya and another artist by the name of Shunya Yamashita, they have released art books of their work and most of the pages are filled with all these characters, all these fantastic varieties and seeing these I instantly wanted something armour garbed and something that catered to detail as I LOVE putting detail in. I originally started with a design of a hunter and his female huntress partner, thing was half way through the concept I pulled away from it and went with a different angle. I thought along the lines of a brother and sister and again was pulling from the hunter idea, I think, seeing the ideas behind Darksiders 2 I went for a death inspired look. I knew the ideas had to be somewhat related to a kind of dead looking sense so already i picked pastel blue as a grounding point. So off I set to work just laying out the initial design of the characters, this could take anywhere from a few minutes to a day dependant on how I'm feeling. After this is done, with this piece I inked directly onto the pencil, I KNOW! A cardinal sin amongst pencillers and inkers a like but for this it WAS necessary as a background was being crafted on a separate sheet of paper and the ink had to be done, and with my past experience I always get better results inking directly on top. Again with the ink, it's one of the most meticulous and careful stages I have to go through as one line can spoil the entire piece. So whilst inking I'm thinking of different lines and details to add to make it look a bit more interesting but for this I left the inks as the pencils dictated and didn't move from them. Once the inks were complete I then set this aside and started working on the background ideas, originally the perspective I was going for wasn't right, so instead of using the lines of perspective first I drew the idea EXACTLY as I wanted it to look, then from that initial sketch I repencilled it as I wanted the background to hold a sense of softness that with just pencil lines seemed to work. Using my light box next I retraced the background sketch onto the ink so we have one complete image which now ready for colours.
When illustrating/designing, do you sometimes get blocked for ideas? How do you overcome that? I used to suffer really bad with blocks but it's all in your head. The way I get around it is I deviate from that which I THINK I want to draw and change subject matter entirely so...for example...say I want to draw Rogue from Xmen ( which I actually do) and it doesn't work. Nothing I do will make it work, so then I change tact and move to anthro. That seems to work for me and means I don't get blocked that severely, if I do I tend to let the brain 'cool down' by playing video games and looking at what other people are drawing to kick start the engine. Then there's always my friends Kris, Sam Emma and Anna, they always have plenty ideas and I work with most of them so it's win win! Do you have any advice for aspiring illustrators/designers? Draw what you love no matter how bad or how foolish or stupid others tell you it is. An idea can start with a small flame on the end of the match stick but given the right amount of tinder and petrol, it can grow into a flaming inferno that is unstoppable. Also have faith in yourself. Myself not being mr self esteem myself I find it's very hard to big myself up and grow confidence but for people to believe in you, you have to believe in your talent, and yourself. What are your 5 top tips for using Letraset items?
Have a test sheet of paper. At the ease of Letrasets comes the big dark shadow on the flip side and that is the percentage of failure should you lay one colour wrong. Most times you can amend it but it won't look as near as good as what you first had in mind. If you want a darker shade of a colour, leave the first layer dry and then go over it. Sometimes you don't need to use another colour marker to get shades, sometimes the marker you just put down is the ideal choice . Bleed Proof Paper IS INVALUABLE!! I originally started with normal printer paper but quickly came to realise that it DEFINITELY was not the best idea in world. When I first got the bleed proof paper, it make the inks supremely crisp, and the colours stay EXACTLY where I put them! Last one but the most important, have fun! Letrasets are easy to use and very very user friendly. Again I've only been using them for the last two years but they are as invaluable to me like my left hand...the one I use to draw with. Which websites do you recommend viewing? I am a member of DeviantArt and have been there for quite some time. The amount of talent on there is terrifying and when you first join it feels like no one is watching, but there are people watching and waiting for you to release something startlingly fantastic! It's a fantastic bed for communal contact , to make friends, to get feedback on your work and to air ideas and collaborate. Do you have a website/ gallery? My DeviantArt profile: http://sub0rd1n4nc3-w0rk5.deviantart.com/ and my newly opened wordpress site which is regretably a bit bare but is: http://edgesoftherainbow.wordpress.com/ |
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