Edmund Dulac (born Edmond Dulac; October 22, 1882 – May
25, 1953) was a French-born, British naturalised magazine illustrator,
book illustrator and stamp designer. Born in Toulouse he studied law but
later turned to the study of art the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to London early in the 20th century and in 1905 received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters. During World War I,
Dulac produced relief books and when after the war the deluxe
children’s book market shrank he turned to magazine illustrations among
other ventures. He designed banknotes during World War II and postage stamps, most notably those that heralded the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.
things i did that forced me to be a better artist:
used a reference for everything
thinner line art (you think thats thin? go thinner….)
sketch, then do a cleaner sketch, THEN start finalizing
THUMBNAILS
color research, picking a set palette or light/dark for each work
you like that pose? redo it one more time
USE A DAMN REFERENCE
do not rely on stylization as an excuse for anatomy
draw the goddamn background you coward
just draw the hand- a bad hand is better than a hidden hand
the rule of thirds WORKS
take a considerable break between sketch and lines/paint
know that art takes longer as you get better at it
draw the seams on clothes
stop aiming for accuracy and focus on fluidity and motion, accuracy will come with practice of those two concepts
just…do the chiaroscuro. just DO IT. no excuses it always works
stop making excuses, make yourself an art schedule/set weekly(or daily) art goals and just DO IT.
“draw the goddamn background you coward“
you should, however, not go Super Clean with a sketch. because it RUINS energy and speed – you get super anal about matching the lineart to it perfectly. i’ve found that my ability to draw quick, smoother lines went up significantly when i started practising with a sketch layer that conveyed what i want without being perfectly accurate. so long as your anatomy/scaling is good, it’ll do.
Today I gave my students a quick presentation on some of the basic considerations for composition, which I am now sharing with you! I’ve given them separate talks about color and tonal value/contrast, which are also super important compositional concerns. (I’ll be sharing those presentations too once I properly format them)
I personally love learning about different compositional techniques. It’s fun to think about the ways that the brain views & sorts images, and how we can trick it into feeling a certain way or looking at certain aspects of an image first! It’s easy to fall into compositional ruts (which I am also guilty of) because a lot of art gets by with mediocre, though serviceable, compositions. If you can generally understand what’s happening in an image then it’s generally fine. However, it’s the truly great compositions, where everything in the whole image has been considered and ‘clicks’ together, that bump up an illustration to a visual slam dunk. NC Wyeth is one of my favorite artists for this reason: his compositions are rock solid, varied based on the image’s intent, and always enhance the mood or action he is depicting.
For extra reading, some online compositional resources that I’ve found helpful or interesting include: Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (download it for FREE. Such a great book all-around.) Gurney Journey (check out the “Composition” tag, but really everything he posts is great) The Schweitzer guide to spotting tangents Cinemosaic (a blog by Lou Romano with some truly WONDERFUL compositions captured from various films) Where to Put the Cow by Anita Griffin
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