storytime
a friendly autumn breeze jostles the banners of forest-land farmers’ market. below these flapping banners, delilah the dog barks about her onions, finnick the fish promotes his greens, and kara the caterpillar sings about her newly jarred jams. on top of rich brown mulch, underneath a chirping sky, all of forest-land gathers within the farmers’ market.
all the while, papa owl hops along from vendor to vendor. he scouts for a scrumptious dinner for his four owlets: scooter, scribble, squirt, and splinter. stay close, papa owl advises the owlets. (a market would be a terrible place to get lost in!)
as the family of owls browse each stand, papa owl questions which produce to gather for dinner. should he purchase the radishes? perhaps the peaches? before papa owl can decide…SWOOSH! scooter zooms into the air and flies away from papa owl. scooter’s spotted something—or someone—and is on a mission to catch it!
my process for the illustration
- sketch
after jotting down a basic perspective grid, i composed papa owl and his owlets on top of the gird. then, i placed them within a collection of farmers’ market stands and animal vendors.
whenever i felt that i “ran out of things to add,” i brainstormed another element of narrative: a rouge kite, a lost coin, a language of bird scratches, etc. - linework
after receiving feedback from my peers and instructor, i edited a few things within my linework:- i replaced the clawed foot with a radish basket.
- i adjusted the eyes of scribble, the front owlet.
- i added more drapery folds to the market stands.
- i included more leaves within the peach basket.
- i gave scooter, the running owl, a wrap-around bandage. (he’s a little rascal, so he gets into many dangerous skirmishes.)
- i drew paws for the dog vendor.
- color study
to determine the color palette of the final illustration, i practiced painting with an autumnal color palette. - final illustration
moving onward to the final illustration, i adjusted the opacity of select lines. i colored the image with the impressionist-like brushes of Kyle T. Webster. (these brushes were found within the latest update of Adobe Photoshop.) - moving illustration (gif)
once i completed the illustration, i decided to add a bit of movement; working frame-by-frame, i blinked the owls’ eyes, wiggled the worm’s tail, and floated bubbles within the fish vendor’s water helmet.
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annalise barber 