Monday, March 1, 2010

Adventurous Youngsters: Part 1

I'd really like to get involved with some YA fantasy book-cover work. I always felt that my color palettes were appropriate, and that my interest in the fantasy genre was evident. So what gives!? Oh, right, I need to draw 'Young Adults'. A little while back I reached out and got people's suggestions on good YA fantasy books (still open, BTW, just list 'em off in the comments of this post). My aim was to find some solid YA books that I could create illustrations for, and thus broaden my portfolio's horizons a bit.

I plan to alternate between illustrations that depict already-published stories, and illustrations that expand my own personal sandbox/world and aesthetic.

This first value-rough is for one of the personal pieces. I'm making an effort to have elements in this image overlap and not be too secular. My friend and former coworker Jeremy once made a good observation on an earlier piece of mine that each of the elements were very separate from everything else. I'm making an effort to push this overlap and interplay in my work until it becomes second-nature. That's really how I make any kind of progress: I work at it until it becomes a reflex.


And below are some thumbnails and outfit sketches for a Sabriel illustration. Sabriel is the title character in the book by Garth Nix.

If you're a fan of Sabriel, you should check out the work my other friend and former coworker Kali has been doing for the Picture Book Report. I was a little hesitant to get rolling on this piece for fear of simply being outclassed in the Sabriel category. But hey, its a fun book, and the more art the merrier.

I'm going to try and post my progress on this project every month, but I'm not making any promises as to how often this will produce a finished illustration. Work gets hectic, man. You know what I'm sayin'.

6 comments:

Anna Christenson said...

I'm eager to see where you go with these. I love watching your process, because you really seem to pay attention to every step. It's a real kick in the butt to me, and reminds me not to be lazy.

Anyway, I totally get the whole trying to finish up some personal pieces and then getting whisked away by other things. I've have a constant build-up of book covers ideas and other illustrations that I keep working on a little and then putting aside.

o said...

Good luck with that piece not turning out awesome!! Also; I just noticed that friendly walrus in your bg image...

McLean Kendree said...

Anna - If you wanna check out someone who makes a commitment to process, take a gander at Sam Bosma's blog. I'm sure you've seen his Hobbit stuff already - but if you haven't seen the process work he posted for his latest Hobbit piece you should check it - its pretty motivating.

Rin - That walrus is my bro. Hetero life-mate 4realz.

Dustin d'Arnault said...

I like it Mc that composition is look pretty sweet!

Anonymous said...

you make me smile and dance mclean... it feels good... oh si....

Cateris said...

Nice!

I'd love to see your take on the Wrinkle in Time series...