Don't get me wrong - there are of course many benefits to working digitally (ctrl-z being the most crucial) but sometimes the infinite options available with Photoshop makes it hard to remain disciplined enough to commit to a single idea. Working to make that concept as strong as possible becomes secondary to creating variations and multiple spin-offs, which are so quick to churn out in a digital workflow.
So the stuff I've been doing lately has been 85% markers on paper. The rest is really just scanning, some cleanup and maybe one or two variations - like an alternative colour scheme, or re-ordering the frames in a storyboard. Nothing major.
I'll post examples once I'm allowed to (i.e. after the project is live and had it's run), so the above serves as a bit of a convoluted back-story to a doodling side-effect that occurred on my lunch break. With my layout pad, pens and markers all over my desk I couldn't help but start doodling while I ate and a few minutes later I ended up with this:
Now, there's nothing particularly special about it, a bit flat really, just a bit of fun with colour and not much thought behind it. Just a doodle. But when I lifted the page off, this is what the sheet beneath it looked like:
I would never have got anything like this in the digital world, it's purely the result of a non-digital process. Marker ink on 50gsm layout paper leaving an imprint. Less detail, but surprisingly, the shapes have much more life to them. The side-effect of a throw-away doodle suddenly reminded me of the importance of negative space, contrasting masses in design, clarity in pose and a glimpse into an illustration style for me to explore. I mean, as drawings I know which one I prefer out of the two.
It even spawned a bunch of ideas for a short that I excitedly scribbled down in a notepad....but more on that later!
No comments:
Post a Comment