Meet the Illustrator
by Amy van Schijndel
by Amy van Schijndel
For this exercise we had to draw something that we didn't have enough of in our portfolio which simultaneously represented who we were as illustrators. I chose to do prop design because i need to practise that more, and because it still fits with my general 'fantasy' style of illustration.
I had three ideas at first before I chose to do prop design. Items, clothing, and characters. I figured i had enough characters, and doing clothing would still loop back to character design, so i chose to do prop design.
I started with a mood and styleboard. I wanted to draw items for a videogame or some sort of card game/tabletop RPG. For the style i wanted it to be paint-y but still have lineart. I wanted to do the lineart in an inky, messy sort of style because i felt it would fit this ancient items in the modern world idea i had.
I researched items from myth and started sketching. I had originally planned more items, but they didn't work out and I also didn't have enough time i the end, so i narrowed it down to my favorites.
The Greek fire was the first item i started on. I had a hard time working out the style before i decided to paint everything with no lineart first, and the draw over it with an ink pen brush.
Here's a more refined item that I did when i had fully worked out the style. I think this drawing is the best example of what my intention was, though the drawings don' t differ enough in style for it to bother me. I had a lot of trouble with the gem on this one, and ended up having to draw it in greyscale first.
These are my finished products, I ended up drawing almost only Greek things, because they seemed much more interesting to me, though I did draw the Ring of Dispel. I drew, in order, Athena's Bridle, Greek Fire, the Helm of Darkness, the Nemean Lion' s pelt, and the ring, as mentioned earlier.
This is what I would make it look like if it actually was a game. I also used this illustration for the mockup of Illustrada that we had to do. I don't think my format fits the normal Illustrada drawings very well but I am very proud of the prop design I did in this exercise.
