IF: Stay

This week’s Illustration Friday word is ‘stay.’  After visiting San Diego last year, my husband and I tossed around the idea of visiting the Northwest region like Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.  Before every vacation, I like to imagine what our stay might be like.  Not only do I think about the places we’ll go, food we’ll eat, and people we’ll spend time with, I also like to imagine the atmosphere, the mood, and the energy. This image, depicting Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, is a place I’ve never been before, and can only guess at what it’s like.  But for this instance, I prefer to guess. I was allowed to enter my imagination and explore!  Hopefully in the near future we’ll visit, but for now, I’m left to enjoy this nice color and complementing urban and natural landscape.

An insight into my process: I generally start with a line drawing (it’s the illustrator in me), then scan it into the computer and digitally rough in the values. My color comps help me to ‘pre-paint’ the image, by planning my palate, mapping the values, and giving me confidence and direction before I finally put paintbrush to canvas.

Black and white render of digital painting.

Be sure to check out my next post where I’ve digitally painted last week’s IF topic, ‘remedy.’  I’ve also posted it to They Draw and Cook.  Enjoy my recipe for the best remedy: cookies!