Layering technique

Feb 23, 2016
2 min read

I am trying out a new technique for my illustrations, drawing textures on tracing paper and main image on a separate piece of paper before finally scanning them into Photoshop to complete piecing them together and colouring. This technique is popular among line drawing artists who prefer sketching out their drawings initially before digitally completing them. I found this to be effective because it allowed me to combine both traditional medium and digital. This method also allowed me to try different equipment such as pencil,ink, ink pen, watercolour and a variety of charcoal.

The illustrations below were the first designs I drawn. I drew using Ink pen then I would add the detail after to achieve

I continued on drawing out the images using ink pen and then placing tracing paper on top to add detail using charcoal pencil and compressed charcoal to give dark and light tones to the detail. I also was inspired by 'Victo Ngai's' details on her images which I experimented and applied onto some of my illustrations. The detailing part on each image was a steady process. I had to image and decide on what detail I wanted to add and what texture I want to add.

The images down below are the ones which I finalised and moved forward onto Photoshop to add the colours in. Some of the illustration have been changed because I wasn't happy with some parts. There are also parts where I had to remove in Photoshop too. For example the image with Nu Wa making the figures her right arm was removed in Photoshop because it was not needed and looked out of place.

What I enjoyed about the process even though it was long was adding the texture part. As soon as I started a little bit on the detail I had to continue and not stop and think to hard about it. Usually I think a lot about how to do this and how it fits, therefore making the process very slow, leaving me rushing at the last minute.

Throughout my project I took photos using my phone taking as many different experiments and changes to images I had to change.

I even planned what my goddess would wear and tried out different ideas how she would wear these and what it would look like. I wanted to keep the scales visable and add horns on her head to symbolise and remind people she is half human half dragon and also sticking with the myth I researched at an earlier stage.