Friday, November 9, 2012

Characters developed

all illustrations ©Kim Rempel
A question for the illustrators out there: what do you use to help you draw bodies in action? Do you take photos of children in poses, do you use the poseable wooden mannequins from art supply stores or are youamazing and can just do it out of your head? At long last I have settled on what the children will look like for my book. Here they are. What a relief to finally "meet" them. I just need to draw a father and then my characters are complete and I can begin the actual illustrations. Yay!

5 comments:

Elsie Rempel said...

I love the characters already! They have personality.
Fantastic!

Karen Martin Sampson said...

Hi Kim, I was a commercial illustrator for about 35 years. I did a LOT of children in my work. I generally used photo references (I kept a huge file of photos, everything I could glean from magazines, personal photos, etc. on all subjects). Now finding photo reference is so much easier with the internet. I used real children to pose for me whenever possible also, including my own son:-) Don't try to just make it up - there are certain stances and body movements that are too hard to get without reference even when you are stylizing your work. Something I'm noticing here in your drawings...the necks are very long. Children have short necks and narrow shoulders. Yours are looking a bit too much like children's faces on adult bodies. Don't make arms and legs too long either, except for pre-teens who often tend to become "colt-like" in their bodies. You have a good start, though, and I love the painting you did for the Nov. 8th post. You are good at putting together the structure and proportions of children's faces.

William Ternay Jr said...

I agree with Karen, Kim. There is a saying; "An Illustrator is only as good as her reference." And ditto her comments about kid's proportions.
I've kept all the now old Polaroids
(yes; I'm a dinosaur)of my wife and kids and neighbor's kids who posed for me,just for laughs.
I also used to shoot kids at playgrounds and schools, but certainly as a man, I'd probably get arrested now, for sure! Parents are very wary of strangers taking pics of their kids, and rightfully so. Happily, you draw reeeely well.
Good luck with the book.

The Art of Kim Kincaid said...

Yeah, everything Karen said. One other thing is taking videos of your models in the actions you want and then pause framing them. They look less static and more in motion. You want that "internal spinning" in your illustrations...the feeling that you've captured them in movement. Best to you with this project.

Kim Rempel said...

Thank you very much everyone. It's very helpful advice!