Mountain Biking on Illustration Sunday!
Welcome back to the sketchblog, friends. And happy Valentine's Day to those who are celebrating it. Happy Treat-Yo-Self-Day to those who are happily single. Today's illustration is not a valentine themed illustration. It really is more linked, if any, to one of the other "holidays" that Americans celebrate in the month of February: Ground Hog Day.
Considering the Groundhogs all agree we need more winter, we all have six more wonderful weeks of being indoors to look forward to. While, as a natural introvert, being a bit of a hermit never bothered me. In fact, the pandemic "lockdowns" in a way gave me the license to be more reclusive than I already was... Which, to be honest, is not necessarily very healthy.
So, as part of my resolutions this year, I have made an effort to be more social, with my friends of course, but also more adventurous in getting out to meet new people. Results so far have been a mixed bag and it's not without some resistance on my part to actually go out when invited to. The year has only really started, so we will see. I just want to stay inside with all this cold weather we had been having here in New York. Though, recently the weather has been a bit of a warm snap so it has encouraged me to get outside a bit more. I had been experiencing a bit of cabin fever being shut n for the winter, so this warm weather has been a nice reprieve. I mean, even a hermit gets tired of watching Netflix in their cave after so long.
Speaking of resolution, as I have mentioned in the past couple of blog posts, I have been going through a lot of my old sketchbooks and old art/illustration notes to uncover some of the forgotten gems that I began but had never completed. I used to participate in the Illustration Friday weekly challenges when Illustration Friday was still around. One week the topic of "Mountain" appeared. I'm not entirely sure exactly when, it's definitely been many years, but I didn't make a note of the date itself in my art notes for it as I am sure that I had planned to execute and complete this illustration that week. I also do not have an old sketch or thumbnail to work from for this illustration/topic. I do have my memory of what I wanted to do for it. I had some notes for it as well as I had done some reference image research for it and it had a folder already set up on my computer... and it just sat there for many years, likely to never be completed until now.
I have enjoyed this fun art resolution this year and have found that going back (returning to projects where I had a good idea but just not the time to finish/execute that illustration to its full potential) and completing these unpolished gems very very very satisfying so far. A sense of completion, for certain.
My memory of MOUNTAIN must have been deciding between two illustration ideas at the time because my memory was of "Mountain Biking," however, my reference research was for "Mountain Hiking." I must have been torn between the two ideas at the time. Well, now, I can do both. There isn't a time frame or limit with either of them (although I did complete Mountain Biking within a week's time.) I am thinking Mountain Hiking (which is the next illo I will be working on) will take a similar amount of time. So you all will be seeing that one soon. In the meantime, you can enjoy the pleasures of a bike ride through the mountains with me.
Working on this illustration topic, during the shut-in period of New York winter has had me thinking ALOT about the outdoor activities I used to do and how much I miss them. I used to bike quite a bit as well as hike quite a bit when I lived in Georgia. While there still are those opportunities here in New York, I really haven't explored them yet. Not fully. If I'm being honest, hardly at all. This project has reminded me of a mountain biking experience I had several years ago at a WhiteWater/Sporting Center outside of Charlotte, NC...
My, then-boyfriend at the time and their old college roommate and I had decided to go on a mountain bike excursion for part of the day after we rafted. It was my idea so I can't be too mad about how things turned out. However, at the time I was furious and the entire adventure turned out disastrous, for me anyway. We had all started out together but they ended up a little ahead of me as I was having an issue with the adjustments on the bike's gears. Well, by the time I was racing to catch up with them, they had already left me behind. I followed them as best as I could but I had obviously picked the wrong path as they were no were to be found. I also happened to have stumbled upon the "Red Trail" since it was way too advanced and "tricky." I couldn't even properly bike my way through it. The turns were too narrow and there were so many drops, some seemingly fatal (well, they appeared that way... I mean come on 8 feet is way too far a drop for an everyday bike ride.) So I ended up climbing down that drop and carrying my bike with me.
I got off my bike and just began to walk the rest of the path, resigned that it was too difficult to bike through. The trail seemed to last forever. After 2 hours of trying to walk my way back out of the biking trails, I accepted that I was officially lost. The sun had already waned so much and was headed toward dusk, there was no sign of anyone else on the trail, and all I could think about was the bike attendant warning us to get back before sundown due to the "wildlife" that we might encounter (i.e. Snakes, and Bobcats and Bears, Oh my.) I had thought, at the time, that they were kidding, but being alone on that very very quiet trail with the sun getting ready to set, I really wasn't sure they were joking. And this trail, right? Going on and on and on forever. The "Fire" trail must be for some 5-6 hour biking excursion because there was no end nor exit in sight. I accepted that I would perish on that trail and be dinner for the cats and bears.
After around another hour of wandering the bike trail alone, I heard some people nearby on a seemingly different bike trail so I went "off trail" and hopped over to another one, following the voices. Any sign of civilization was going to be welcomed at this point. I was able to catch up with the other people I heard and ask them where the nearest exit to the trail was. They directed me back toward where they entered. I thanked them and I followed their directions back to an entrance/exit off of this crazy bike trail. I had apparently mad it clear on the other side of the Sporting Center. As I was making my way back across concrete walkways (so thankful to be back in civilization) I came across my then-boyfriend and his college friend. They were leisurely lounging on lawn chairs enjoying cold beers... I was furious. I don't even remember what I said to them, but I do remember it wasn't nice.
As it turned out I was just hangry. After turning in the mountain bike to the rental center, having a seat, and enjoying a beer (that my then-boyfriend got for me) I chilled out and we all ate some dinner. As usual, this Cancer Sun just needed to eat before he killed somebody. lol. I haven't mountain biked since. But... I've been thinking about giving it another chance here in the Catskills.
Anyway... Let's talk about this cute cute cute little mountain that is biking along. He's adorable, isn't he? Oddly enough after all these years, I still kept the idea of what I had wanted for this illustration in mind. I KNEW exactly how I wanted the illustration composed, what the mountain would look like, and what some of the colors would be. I kind of just followed my intuition with this one. I knew I wanted him dressed in this 80s-ish fitness outfit and I knew I wanted to emulate this certain sort of character design aesthetic with the mountain himself. I also knew that I wanted the bicycle to be yellow. It was tempting to make another homage to Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but I resisted. Besides, who can't love a yellow bicycle? They are literally JOY on wheels.
The challenge with this illustration was really selecting the right background and colors for the background to complement the main subject. I have been doing more Color Comps in my Progress process this year and have been really satisfied with the results. I used to do Illustration Friday ILlustrations color work on the fly as I thought it would be more expeditious. However, I would sometimes struggle with color selection, or just not pick colors that work well together. Being in a rush sometimes causes those minute detail mistakes.
I REALLY enjoyed selecting the papers and fabrics for this one. I LOVE some good texture and really wanted to have something that felt very tactile. I hope most of my illustrations express a love for tactility and texture and encourage, perhaps dare the viewer to reach out and touch the illustration out of curiosity of how it might feel.
This was a very fun Illustration and I really enjoyed working on it. I'm excited to share it all with you. I look forward to working on its "sister" illustration, Mountain Hiking which I will get to share with you all soon.
Just to add, another one of my resolutions this year is to learn Spanish, or begin to learn it (I imagine it will obviously take more than a year to do so.) One of my favorite words so far is word Bicicleta. I LOVE the way it sounds, and the way it's spelled, and saying it is just so satisfying. lol Yo quiera una bicicleta amarilla! I really need to plan a biking excursion in the city very soon as things warm up and we head toward Spring weather. Until then, I hope you all are hanging in there and finding indoor activities to keep you occupied while you dream of outdoor adventure soon to come.
until next time, friends...
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing, and most important of all, keep making art.
Cheers,
LEWIS
Comments
Post a Comment