Process Work

Kickstarter Beginnings

In 2014 I was building a portfolio geared towards children's books. I found the 1830s original version of The Little Mermaid and wanted to adapt it myself to practices more narrative pieces and add work to my portfolio. I ended up dropping the project since it was so dark. Now, 3 years later I'm pulling that old folder from my external hard drive. The tone of the story is perfect for the work I love doing now. I thought it would be a perfect story for my Kickstarter. I gave a lot of thought about my work and my self this past week at Illuxcon. And I know that this is the right project because it's something I'd want to do regardless of making money. 

#MerMay
Part of my push to do this story was also attributed to when I explored full figure narrative pieces with chalk pastel and chalk pastel pencils during May 2017 for #MerMay. I was trying to work with this media at no larger than 9"x12". I think there was some success here. However, I feel I'll likely work larger for the book. It's more obvious what media I'm using with these pieces due to the small size. I think there is more of a mystery to the process when I work at a more comfortable size and I like that. That may mean some reeeeally big chalk pastel pieces, which is fine by me. 

Student Work
Below is my old process work from 2013 as a student. You can tell I was a bit wet behind the ears still (pun intended, hahahaha.) I did have a successful piece, which is the first image. It was a combination of a scanned drawing, a scanned chalk pastel texture, and a lot of digital work in Photoshop. I played with this technique for a while, but decided I hated grueling away at a computer screen. I eventually exclusively worked with chalk pastels soon after and you can learn more about that in an interview I did in 2016. 

Westworld Time-lapse Drawing

Freebie for you guys. I often share time-lapse videos on my Patreon and here is one of the latest.

Here is an impromptu chalk pastel drawing I decided to do of Doloris from the HBO series Westworld. You'll notice I play around with the placement at the beginning of this video. Totally not planned. I hope I can finish this up within the next few weeks.

See more process videos and tutorials on my Patreon:
http://patreon.com/ashlylovett

music ©Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"

Demo Tutorial and Video and EDO

Here is a 60sec sneak peak of my 5min demo video that accompanies my 11 page Process PDF Tutorial. With this Tutorial I explain how to use chalk pastels and demonstrate my method with a step-by-step guide in creating a black and white portrait. This is my June reward for my patrons on Patreon.

Get all my tutorials, see in-depth blog posts for illustrations, and many other goodies by pledging Tier 3 for $11. Learn more at http://patreon.com/ashlylovett

This piece is titled "Fae" .It is a 4x6 chalk pastel piece on BFK Rives paper. It will be framed and matted and available at Every Day Original Sun., July 10th 11am EST. http://everydayoriginal.com

Crimson Peak: Thomas

After watching that movie I was bouncing in my seat from all that art eye candy or as Guillermo Del Toro put it "eye protein." Every frame was breathtaking. There is one scene at the beginning of the movie featuring a social event. And I swear frame by frame it looked like something out of a painting. And the house...I could go on and on about how beautiful that movie was. You could tell all the designers put their heart into that production.

With all that said, I really wanted to do an illustration in honor of that amazing film. Even though I was rambling to my husband as we left the movie theatre about how gorgeous my next illustration was going to be, I was actually overwhelmed by the time I got to my studio. I want to say SO much, but what to say and how to do it?

So while I try to dissect this more involved illustration for Crimson Peak, I had to do something to satisfy this desire. Thus this chalk pastel portrait Thomas

My time lapse video of the making of Thomas. This is my first time doing this, so I hope it is informative. I'll try to make this more of a habit for future work. And maybe add music next time :P

My tool of the trade: Nupastels. I'm trying out a method were you store the pastel sticks in rice to keep them cleaner.

My tool of the trade: Nupastels. I'm trying out a method were you store the pastel sticks in rice to keep them cleaner.

Month of Fear: Mirrors

I wanted to participate in this year's Month of Fear, which is " a weekly art challenge created by Kristina Carroll for the month of October. It was designed to inspire artists to get together, shake things up,  push themselves  and create a bunch of new personal work. We do another monthly challenge in February called Month of Love."

This week's word was Mirror: Reflection, deception, spirits and secrets.This is darker than most of my current work, but I wanted to step a little further out of my circle and challenge myself with a more serious piece. This one is titled "Reflection". Next week's challenge is:  Sabbath Witches and devils.

These process images are crude and taken with an iphone, but in my defense these were intended for my own personal documentation and not a demo. So here it is: I sketched in my base drawing with nupastels. Next, I went over certain areas with a sponge brush soaked with water. It gives the pastel a "paint" quality and dries with interesting textures that I knew would work great for this concept. I want to stress that this was done on BFK Rives cotton rag paper, so it doesn't buckle. Once dried it was a process of refining my shapes and trying to give it that foggy mirror look, which was an interesting challenge. The solution of using a fogged mirror helped make this story less gruesome and more appealing to a broader audience. ;)

The Other Mother

As you can see from my portfolio, I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman's book Coraline. I'm in love with the visuals and the way it is written. 

I wanted to do a spot illustration of the other mother when she is first introduced to the reader.

It sounded like her mother. Coraline went into the kitchen, where the voice had come from. A woman stood in the kitchen with her back to Coraline. She looked a little like Coraline's mother. Only...
Only her skin was white as paper.
Only she was taller and thinner.
Only her fingers were too long, and they never stopped moving, and her dark-red fingernails were curved and sharp.

'Coraline?' the woman said. 'Is that you?'
And then she turned around. Her eyes were big black buttons.
'Lunchtime, Coraline,' said the woman
'Who are you?' asked Coraline.
'I'm your other mother," said the woman. 'Go and tell your other father that lunch is ready.' She opened the door of the oven.

I've gathered a lot of inspiration from Dita Von Teese

I've gathered a lot of inspiration from Dita Von Teese

Brain storming sketch.

Brain storming sketch.

             One of many 1950s references for "the perfect mother, wife, and home." Yick.

             One of many 1950s references for "the perfect mother, wife, and home." Yick.

Coraline Spot

"Coraline wondered if the other mother wasn't interested in trees, or if she just hadn't
bothered with this bit properly because nobody was expected to come out this far.
  
  She kept walking.
  
  And then the mist began.
  
   It was not damp, like a normal fog or mist. It was not cold and it was not warm. It felt to Coraline like she was walking into nothing. "
                        - from Coraline, by Neil Gaiman

This particular spot is when Coraline is walking through the woods in the other mother's created world. I always loved the imagery of this passage and was inspired to do my own spot illustration for it. Below are close-up and further down is some of process my work.

 

I knew I wanted an illustration of Coraline walking through a forest that rapidly had trees started turning into "an idea of a tree." I usually already make my backgrounds suggestive and loose, so it was a fun challenge working with my style and still having my illustration read as a forest turning into nothingness rather than an illustration that isn't finished.

My initial sketches and media test: