SARAH DAVIS ILLUSTRATION

May I introduce you to Marmaduke, jam-making duck extraordinaire? These are some of the roughs and character studies for one of the (many!) books I'm working on at the moment. It's written by Juliette McIver, and I think it's one of the craziest, funniest rhyming texts I've read. It'll be published by Scholastic next year. I'll post more bits and pieces as I get further along with it.

I've just finished doing the first very rough roughs for the book I'm working on at the moment, The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate by Joy Cowley. At this stage, all I've really done is work out what goes on which page and how the action will develop - the drawings are still pretty horrible. But I find it really useful to do the roughs of each spread at the actual size that the finished book will be, and to blu-tack all the spreads to the wall so I can see the entire story at a glance. So here is my wall... it's hell on the paintwork!

I've just finished the poster for Marian Street Theatre's next production - Beauty and the Beast. I had to do it really quickly - I had less than 2 days - so worked out a superfast technique that seemed to work nicely for me. First I did an underdrawing, which is red chalk dust brushed onto gesso on paper with a wet brush - you can layer up the intensity of the tones, and erase away the highlights, and soften the edges with extra water. I think I like the underdrawing more than the final painting. Then I had my first proper go with my new Genesis paints, layering about 7-8 coats over the underdrawing. It was so fast - the paints stayed totally workable for as long as I needed them to, and then I could dry them instantly with my trusty heat gun. The consistency is nice - quite soft and buttery, and easily diluted with medium to create transparent glazes. I have a couple of reservations - the colours don't behave quite the way I'm used to, and it dries a little chalky, but that might be because I haven't got the balance of paint and thinner right. Anyway, here's the final finished thingummyjig....

In my last post I was ready to launch into experimenting with Genesis, and I just had my first attempt at using them. On the whole... wow.  They could be very, very useful.

They do feel a lot like oils, and have that nice glossy oil finish when they dry - the texture takes a bit of getting used to at first, because they come out of the pot like clay, but if you work them with a palette knife for 15 seconds or so, they go very buttery and seem to stay that way. If you left them for a long time, you'd just need to rework them a bit if they went stiff.

First of all I used the 5 colours from my starter pack to mix a few of the colours listed on the very helpful little recipe sheet that Genesis provided - got shades close to Payne's Gray, Light cadmium,  etc.

Then I experimented on a little cheap pad of primed canvas that I've had lying around for ages.  What started as random blocks of colour turned into a strange little seascape with annoyingly puffy clouds. The whole thing measures about 15x12 cm, and took less than half an hour. I did it in 5 layers, drying each with the hot air gun in between. It was SO fast - the paint dries instantly as soon as it reaches the right heat and once it's dry nothing will shift it off the canvas, short of a blade.  I think these paints will make a big difference to turnaround time when I'm working on a book deadline. And all the colours I mixed are still sitting patiently on my palette, waiting for me. And they will never dry, until I tell them to! Oh, the giddy power of it all!

I've taken some process photos of the different layers, so you can see the progress of this little sketch. Give the animation a chance to load...

(PS: I'm also posting this for Illustration Friday because the topic is "Modify", and this is me trying to modify my technique. I know, I know, it's cheating...)

When I heard about Genesis heat-set oils, I was curious to try them out, and since I am incredibly efficient and proactive, it's only taken me two years or so to get around to doing something about it. Anyway, I just ordered the starter set to see what they're like, and here it is in all its glory...

  It comes in a case with instructions, 5 basic colours, a jar of medium, and a heat gun for drying the paint. The general idea is that this paint stays wet and workable until it is dried by radiant heat - it dries instantly when heated to a particular temperature and can be worked over straight away.  I thought this might be potentially the best of both worlds - the workability of oils combined with the speed of acrylics. When I started investigating, though, I couldn't find much on the www about whether these paints were the best thing since sliced cheese or a dreary waste of time.  The fact that there isn't much out there may be an ominous sign, or it may just be that they're not widely known. Anyway, I thought somebody out there might find it useful if I posted a little bit about my adventures in Genesis-land.

The possible benefits are:

The paint is non-toxic and cleans up in water, and will never dry out on your brushes.  There's less waste because it doesn't dry on the palette either - just sits there till you've used it all up, the dog walks in it, or it gets covered in bits of fluff and dust-bunnies, whichever happens first.  All are equally likely in my house. It apparently feels a lot like oils to use, and I am partial to oils (not that I really know how to use them!) It can be thinned with either odourless solvent or Genesis medium - they have a decent range of mediums and varnishes. They also have great customer service and are really easy to order online.

The possible drawbacks are:

It may not have a nice finish, or the colours may be off or dull. I wouldn't know, because I haven't even had a chance to uncork the jars yet. It's only compatible with certain surfaces - it apparently reacts badly to some plastics and some brands of acrylic gesso. I may be restricted to painting on gessoed board, canvas, or metal, and it might be tricky to find a surface it will work with that is also flexible enough for drum scanning.

We'll see... tune in for the next exciting episode when I actually OPEN the POTS OF PAINT! (Gasp!)