Amelia's Magazine | Mothering Sunday 2012: an illustrated ode to Mothers everywhere
One of the occupational hazards (well for me) of illustrating, is ending up with several different versions of one illustration and then being unable to decide which version is best and to submit! When I saw Amelia Gregory's call out for Mothering Sunday illustrations and dedications which were personal to the illustrator, and an opportunity to tell the world why she is special, I jumped at the chance, and I quickly settled on doing a portrait of her. There is a backstory to that choice - several years ago in my teens I drew my mum, and she thought I had made her look so old (it was true I had) she actually asked me to burn the drawing! Well I didn't burn it, thought that was a bit extreme, but it made me very nervous of attempting another portrait of her, and yes, I do admit, I went a bit the other way, this drawing is of a 70 year old woman (well 72 now) and although she does look pretty young for her age even I admit I ironed out a couple of creases here and there.
So to show some of the process of settling on a couple of finalised versions I thought I would post a few works in progress and the two or three finished versions I ended up with. Compared to some illustrations this was pretty light on the number of endless possibilities that I have ended up with.
One of the occupational hazards (well for me) of illustrating, is ending up with several different versions of one illustration and then being unable to decide which version is best and to submit! When I saw Amelia Gregory's call out for Mothering Sunday illustrations and dedications which were personal to the illustrator, and an opportunity to tell the world why she is special, I jumped at the chance, and I quickly settled on doing a portrait of her. There is a backstory to that choice - several years ago in my teens I drew my mum, and she thought I had made her look so old (it was true I had) she actually asked me to burn the drawing! Well I didn't burn it, thought that was a bit extreme, but it made me very nervous of attempting another portrait of her, and yes, I do admit, I went a bit the other way, this drawing is of a 70 year old woman (well 72 now) and although she does look pretty young for her age even I admit I ironed out a couple of creases here and there.
So to show some of the process of settling on a couple of finalised versions I thought I would post a few works in progress and the two or three finished versions I ended up with. Compared to some illustrations this was pretty light on the number of endless possibilities that I have ended up with.
the illustration that I chose for Amelia's Magazine in the end.
The one with Heather (my mum's name) in the background that I made into a card for her.
One I rejected as it made her look like she had dodgy skin!
An earlier work in progress
Preview section of the selected illustration.
A slighter softer paler version without the words.
Initial drawing, I moved the mouth digitally, and made it a bit narrower, as I realised it wasn't quite right. Also changed the nose slightly.
what my mum really looks like and the photograph I based it on!
Finally in case you missed it further up the link to the article in Amelia's Magazine and some beautiful dedications and illustrations:
I dunno what "dodgy" is, but I like these a lot--very fresh!
ReplyDeleteoh thankyou! :-) that was quick! I have edited this you might have missed some that I've just added! :-)
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