Even though I am largely a self-taught artist and have been creating art for over 30 years, I still consider myself very much a student of the subject and am therefore always looking to learn new skills and techniques.
During Covid, online courses became something of a lifeline for me, particularly those offered on the Domestika platform.
This illustration is the outcome resulting from a course led by Ana Santos in combining watercolour with digital manipulation to create an interesting and engaging visual narrative.
Below I have included the various elements I created to make up this composition with a link to the course should anyone viewing this page like to give it a try too.
To add to the story, I created a few more elements in charcoal on paper
Click on the images below to get a closer look at each.
As this illustration is essentially a narrative piece, I needed to find a protagonist, so I started with a line drawing in pencil on paper of a face of a girl from a royalty-free stock photo I found online which I then went on to paint with watercolour and embellish with pencils.
Click on the images below to get a closer look at each.
The next stage was to create some drama, so I chose to create large colourful flowers in watercolour and pencil
Click on the images below to get a closer look at each.
Once I had all of the elements for the illustration, I scanned them all into Photoshop to build the composition. This took a little bit of time but I managed to bring it all together and I was pleased with the results.
This course was incredibly enjoyable and rewarding and I learned a lot of new skills. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the process of telling stories via illustration.
