Going Mountain Hiking on Illustration Friday!
Good morning, friends, and welcome back. As I have expressed in the previous brother/sister illustration/blog post, these Winter Indoor Vibes have been giving me the I-Want-To-Go-Outside Vibes. I have really been missing outdoor activities and while I do make it a daily habit to go to my gym, it's not really the same thing. Is it? Gym time is still very much an indoor activity.
Of all the outdoor activities I miss, hiking and kayaking are probably top on my list right now. I've been dying to go do them again. With Spring right around the corner, I'm biting my nails in Antici...
...pation. ;0P (for those who know that one)
Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center in South Brooklyn.
Again, I haven't done much of these activities since I moved to NY, quite frankly because I don't really know where to go to do them. It will definitely require more research. A couple of years ago (when I was dealing with a chronic illness and was indoors most of the year) I was able to be welll enough for a small stint to try hiking in this nature preserve in South Brooklyn. It was, however, ultimately disappointing as the trail I really wanted to hike (the 6-8 hour trail) was flooded and (for whatever reason) not maintained/overgrown. I had to just appease myself with the smaller trail. I admit it was a beautiful trail and (for the most part) maintained, but it was also overgrown in certain areas of it. It was also very "flat." So it was more akin to a stroll in the park, maybe less so, as Central Park has hills and this trail was entirely flat.
I like a challenge when I hike so this nature trail or whatever it was didn't really satisfy me; not in the ways that I like. I sometimes call my walks in the city itself "urban hiking" because you do get a good workout walking up and downhill all over these 5 Burroughs, not to mention up and down all the subway stairs. lol. But it still does not hit quite the same as a REALLY GOOD old fashioned mountain hike. Again, I have some research to do that circumstance has really kept me from looking into it with any sort of seriousness.
I hear there is EXCELLENT hiking available over on Staten Island, a Burrough I have not previously explored. There is also a JAWS Ride Bruce to visit over on Staten Island. He's strung up and hanging from the ceiling of a restaurant. Apparently, the brothers who own the restaurant are huge JAWS fans (I can definitely relate) and when Universal Orlando dismantled its JAWS Ride to make way for Diagon Alley, they apparently sold off the 7 Bruce robotic sharks that were part of the ride. So, my plan this upcoming Spring is to make a mecca to Staten Island for a nice day hike and then to grab some grub at the JAWS restaurant and pay my respects to the Bruce that they have there.
...Very much looking forward to that. lol.
Mountain Hiking Sketch
Let's take a look at this illustration. So, MOUNTAIN was a weekly topic from Illustration Fridays's website several years ago. I had made some notes and had done my image reference research in order to create it, but that was as far as it had gone. I resolved this year that I was going to dig back into the morgues of my notes and sketchbooks and begin to pull out good/interesting illustration ideas/sketches for unfinished works and bring them to completion. I remember this idea rather fondly.
Let's Go On An Adventure by Philip Tseng
I was inspired by a few artists that were drawing in this popular aesthetic (at the time) and I wanted to experiment with that same aesthetic. To name a couple of artists: Philip Tseng and Megan Pelto. I loved their charming creations and was inspired to make something akin but within my own style. I didn't want to copy their style, but I did want to allow myself to be immersed in it and influenced by it and then see what comes out of it. My version of that aesthetic/style.
MOUNTAIN Thumbnail Sketch Ideas
And, as you already know, I ended up with 2 ideas for this topic: Mountain Hiking and then Mountain Biking. You all have seen mountain biking previously, but Mountain Hiking was my original concept. It came to me first and that is what my notes for this illustration were for, a hiking-themed illo. The mountain I first envisioned looked more like the one I ended up using for Mountain Biking. I wanted the mountain to be squat and wide. I also, originally planned for the legs to be much shorter and for the jacket to be kind of squashed and hanging off the bottom. I changed these original plans after creating Mountain Biking. I found that the squat and short legs and arms really were not going to work out for the Mountain character to reach the handles or the pedals and I didn't want a short and squat bike. So, I modified the arms and legs of the figure to be longer.
This modification needed to translate over to the brother/sister illustration for Mountain Hiking as well. I changed the original figure from short and squat to be a bit more elongated and tall. I definitely wanted a different mountain shape (instead of just using a similar version from the other illustration) and I gravitated toward this tall more gumdrop shape for this character. I think it works better as the backpack can, now, be taller with more visible detail, the jacket can wrap more naturally around the figure with more details as well and I think adding the height to the figure gives them a bit more breathing space within the scene. Obviously, I couldn't resist making this a more Autumn themed illustration (look for it in the shop Fall 23) as I tend to enjoy hiking more so in the cooling-off season of the year.
Louis Tomlinson, musician.
[I used his face as the basis for the mountain face...
not that you can tell by the end of it.]
Image credit unknown.
I will go ahead and dispel any thought that this is a caricature of me. I know I used to rock a similar goatee, but I actually stylized the face and features from a model... Not that you can tell when they are simplified to this degree, but there you have it.
Work In Progress Screen Shot
I'm very charmed by this little mountain character. One of the things I really enjoyed doing in the process of making this illustration is adding and balancing all the different textures throughout the illustration. Texture is probably my favorite element in Art that I get to play with. I think that is one of the reasons that my work has gravitated toward doing a version of digital collage work using so many different textiles, handmade papers, and printed pattern papers and fabrics. I really enjoy using them in my illustrations. Color was also a fun process for this piece. I have been getting in the habit this year of reintroducing the Color Comprehensive step back into my creative process. It was a little annoying and tedious at first, as I previously was in the habit of choosing my color on the fly, but I have really been getting used to it and, I dare say, even beginning to enjoy that part of my process. I will definitely say it has been more beneficial because all that "think" work is done when I begin the finished piece. All I have to worry about is just getting to enjoy the process and labor of love that comes from making the art at that point...
...and I have really loved that.
Also, isn't that little cable car coming off of his backpack the MOST adorable thing. lol. It was a detail I added on the fly. I think it's cute and fun. A mountain hiking an even bigger mountain.
I hope you all have enjoyed this little picture I made, and I trust that you are all keeping warm inside while we all wait for the frost to thaw so we can go do the outside things we've been daydreaming about for the past 3 months. Take care, friends.
until next time, friends...
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing, and most important of all, keep making art.
Cheers,
LEWIS
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