Yesterday was my last day teaching the kids illustration class, it was awesome and everyone of those kids is super talented. I am actually really pretty bummed its over... for now.... CAUSE GUESS WHAT?!?! I'm teaching again after the holidays. I digress, One of the kids asked me which is better: digital or traditional? My answer: Yes. If you've got the means learning both is super beneficial. I mainly work traditionally but anything that is "portfolio worthy" spends some time in Photoshop, or Procreate for some fixing or enhancing. For example:
My Krumpuses (Krumpi?) from this week. To start I took picture of them with decent lighting with my iPhone and 86'd the background and brought everyone into 1 file for a group shot. So far, there has been no color correction or editing aside from the background elimination. With everyone playing nicely together I'll usher them along to Procreate. Here they are, with some cosmetic enhancements
To even out some of the colors I added separate layers with solid colors and lowered the opacity. This way I can still keep the texture of the watercolor paper and the natural colors gradients from the paint beneath it. After that is some general editing maintenance: wayward brushstrokes, pen whoopses, paint splots, etc.
Are they major edits? Nope. Could I have gotten these colors traditionally? Probably... not. Watercolors have a transparency that's really hard to replicate but harder to overcome. Thats part of their magic and elegance coupled with how well colors dance and blend together. Guache might be a contender in this case but you'll lose some of that texture of the paper.
I know you might be asking yourself, why didn't you just paint the group together on the same page and save yourself some trouble. Solid question. I've actually got 6-7 larger paintings taking up all of my art boards and its getting out of hand. I need to see some finished stuff instead of a lot of white unpainted areas.
There's two or three more additions coming to Kamp Krumpus, so keep an eye on Instagram to see the whole gang come together.
Thanks for checking it out, if you have any questions or let me know below :)
-Mr. Tom