For Better or for Worse
What I did to improve my illustrations of Wedding Guests
In my last blog I shared my ten-minute illustrations which were all drawn in strictly ten minutes! (Apart from the family group for which 15 minutes is “allowed” by the laws of live event illustration).
I have been very diligent and listened to the feedback from Scott W Mason who is the Leader of the Live Wedding Illustration Masterclass which I’m currently enjoying. So here are the improvements that I’ve made.
The biggest deal is this lady here, whom I call “Helicopter Woman” as she is so windswept she looks like a chinook has landed nearby, rather than the subtle romantic interlude of a wind machine. Here is the Before pic:
A windswept woman, being buffeted from all directions.
And here is the after:
The same woman edited with Procreate to make her hair and clothes billow in the same direction.
I think it’s a lot better! If you’d like to see the whole Procreate video of the process, here it is:
Here are two fellas I grappled with (artistically), due to the nature of their suits. I picked up a light grey colour to start with and it did not show them to their best advantage, so I’ve shown them here in their better and worse versions:
I also made adjustments to the others, so I hope you can spot the difference!
Some of them are only slight differences, so don’t panic if you didn’t get them all!
You may be wondering, how is she going to draw people in ten minutes if she has to add bits afterwards? How is she going to speed up? Why should I book her for my Live Event if it takes 11 minutes per person and not merely ten?
Fear not, I have a strategy! Firstly, at any Live Event I liaise with you beforehand to ascertain who are the VIP guests, those who SIMPLY MUST be illustrated and they are my priority. Secondly, I take pictures of everyone and complete the illustrations in my studio after the event, if necessary and the cost is agreed in advance, so no need to worry about going over budget. And thirdly, the more I draw the faster I become- try it, it works!
The main strategy though is Colour Swatches. When time is tight you need to make sure that you grab the right colour first go- if you grab the wrong colour, such as skin tone or garment colour, it can throw the whole illustration off. But if you’re confident with your colour choice from the off, and your equipment is all set then you hit the ground running.
Here’s how I made my colour swatches for my Winsor and Newton Promarkers:
And here’s the complete set! Gamechanger!
It makes such a speedy difference when I can see exactly what colour I’m going to get on the kind of surface that I’m using.
And now I’m off to dabble gleefully with my new swatches!
Back soon,
Zoe