Drawn and painted using Painter & Wacom tablet (click image and select “all sizes” to enlarge)
I had a few ideas for this week’s Illustration Friday challenge and this one seemed the more upbeat–the other two involved coffins and dead people (they are very quiet, though maybe not too attractive).
I love libraries and anything having to do with books. My “day job” is for a literacy organization and all of my co-workers are also book lovers. I have fond memories of family trips to the library when I was a kid, and also with my sons when I became a parent (and now with my little next-door-neighbor kids).
I really like drawing with the Wacom tablet and Painter when I’m trying to make a picture up from my imagination rather than drawing from life or a reference photo. I can keep sketching and just let images appear–not being exactly sure where I’m going. It’s fun to see who and what appears on the screen. Because I can keep erasing and trying new things on new layers and move things around, I can keep sketching a scene without throwing away tons of paper or sitting in a pile of eraser stubble. It seems a little like sculpting–carving an image out of a bunch of scribbles.
Technical stuff that probably nobody is interested in:
I’m still having trouble with converting Painter files to Photoshop — even if I convert to TIFF as the Painter tech support guy told me to do (because Painter converts it’s files to CMYK instead of RGB when it creates a Photoshop-compatible file), golden yellows look lemon colored. But I have determined that it’s not a problem between to my two computer screens. I opened the Painter file side by side with the Photoshop file on my desktop PC and could see that it was Painter/Photoshop problem not Desktop monitor/Laptop screen. The good news is I’ve learned how to use yet another function in Photoshop: Using Image/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation and tweaking the hue of the yellow channel solves the problem, without having to buy a new screen or anything else. This is also helpful when correcting scan color problems.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
22 replies on “Illustration Friday: Quiet”
I love libraries too. I devour books voraciously. My family members say I should not buy any more books, or else they will take over the whole house. Nice illo!
LikeLike
Good. Happy image. I like it.
LikeLike
Very nice illustration.
LikeLike
Wonderful illo!
LikeLike
Jana — this is so perfect!!! I love those rows upon rows of books (I’m a bookophile too!) — and the children … super job — I LOVE the way your imagination works !!
LikeLike
A really good use of quiet painting technique and a very quiet feeling to this lovely painting.
As for transferring to Photoshop… you can paint in Painter and save as a JPEG and it will appear in Photoshop in RGB. If you wish to save as a TIFF you should still be able to convert the image back to RGB in Photoshop. The Painter people are working on the issue of compatibility with Photoshop. There are some downloads to upgrade Painter on the Painter website that might address the issue.
LikeLike
Very nice, Jana….love your technique..
Very cool!
LikeLike
Nice. I’m still a newbie with the Wacom, but I want to practice more. 🙂
LikeLike
ow i love the color here.. very bright. and love her expression! hi hi.
LikeLike
Hey, excellent work! I love your blog too-so much great work to look at!
LikeLike
Now coffins and dead people in a library, that’s a good mix 🙂
LikeLike
It’s hard to believe that this was drawn by the same person who did the previous post’s life drawings. You are very versatile, Jana. BTW my son is enjoying his Wacom tablet. My life has been so frantic lately that I haven’t taken the time to sit down with it. Soon I hope!
LikeLike
I love libraries also. One of these dys i am going to get a tablet.
How neet you can just draw and draw and not waste paper.
LikeLike
i am a librarydweller also and spend many hours earning unimportant interesting things there that i store away and forget until moments when needed. I tell you, I have a Wacom tablet a mate of mine got me a while back, and I have used it a few times but it’s hard to get used to; I think I’ll give it a go again. I have ‘painter classic’ which i find frustrating. nice picture, i like the colour.
LikeLike
Jana, I thought about this idea too. I also am a BIG library fan! Yes, you are right, dead people are VERY quiet also. Great drawing!
LikeLike
Nice take!! That brings back many childhood memory talking too much in library getting in trouble!! HA ! HA!!
LikeLike
I guess you really hit a hot spot here Jana-WE ALL LOVE LIBRARIES!! Neat job.
LikeLike
I’m very happy that my words and observations have touched someone, JanaBouc. I’ve always noticed that my approach to art has involved ‘shaping’ the vivid thought and kinda ‘chipping’ away the excess pencil lines as I work. I’m not a Xerox machine so the end result is never perfect (thank goodness) and is guaranteed to be an original effort.
But screwing up still stings…
😀
P.S. Put in a good word for me with that Librarian, she needs a smile…
😀
LikeLike
Love the juxtaposostion between the quiet sign and the group of 3, who we KNOW are not planning to be quiet! Very thoughtful Jana! And, of course, well done!
LikeLike
Your color issues with Painter and how you solved it is good to know. I don’t usually worry about it as I send my clients my files in RGB. No complaints thus far. I imagine they’ve done the exact same tweaking you did.
LikeLike
Great illustration and clever idea for quiet.
LikeLike
Maybe you should do your original idea and enter it in the Renderosity.com contest for Halloween? Or the Illustrationfriday.com contest?
This is a very appropriate piece! I also wanted to comment on the vegetable pieces above…awesome work, indeed!!
LikeLike