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Art
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Illustrations for this web site
& tips for authors illustrating
a novel.
Ideas for those with novice or limited art skills
 We are all artists. Cooking,
photography, home decorating, gardening, sewing, and an endless list of skills are forms of art. My skills as an illustrator are very limited.
Computer
photo programs such as Corel and Photo Shop can assist practically any author illustrating his own book.
 Note the drawing below ( ↓ ) taken from the photo above.
The original photo lost clarity of
features as I enlarged it. Amateur artists can take advantage of blurring and other flaws. Crop a section you via your photo software, enlarge and print a fast normal, 8x10 copy.
Place a carbon paper under the copy, ink (or graphite) side up. Trace only major shapes and features. Scan and mirror-flip the tracing on the computer screen and then print a copy.
Set the full color, fast-draft copy up as your model.
You are now ready to shade in your traced copy with an ordinary pencil, colored pencils, pastels or oil.
I like to use two or more mediums to color and shade in my drawings.
The young man in the original picture wore a swimsuit. I put a pair of jeans on the day
dreaming teen in my drawing above. I followed original contours to give them that 1960s/70-ish fit with a slight flare at the cuffs. Rice paper filled in the background and a metalic fill
was splashed into my drawing of the rock for a wet and dry look.
 Combining Photos
for new composite scenes
Study two or more photos to create a totally new piece of art. The photo of the gardener [right] was scanned and a second “mirror-flipped” copy provided
equally matched wrestlers. The result is this painting titled “Conflict Resolution.”
That painting became the illustration for my short story, “Dime Store Mirrors” found in my third book: Birch Clump Portfolio, a collection of my short
stories and poetry.
A downtown store front could have been added.
The bush filled in the missing portion of the forward leg(s) not seen in the
original photo.
Visit Birch Clump's 1969 Year Book, if you haven't done so already.
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Short Index
Sgt. T. Douglas
1980, age 29, 6 ft 1" - 150 lbs.
Cheap Tricks
For Period Illustrations
Old photos from your own collection or from an internet search of
particular eras can provide models to draw or paint from if you want period authenticity for say the 1920s, 50s, 70s or what ever.
A visitor took the gardening picture of me with my own 35mm camera when I had my back turned (obviously) at some point around 1978-80. The tapered flared jeans
are perfect for even a 1967 scene. Softening things up with a brush kept any tell tale signs of tailoring differences from 67 through 80 from being detected. The lengthened hair
helped set the picture back a few years as well as to disguise the model’s real identity.
The result, a perfectly matched pair of wrestlers, would make for
an exciting scene if the subjects came to life.
A wide leather belt and the higher waist band in those days kept our pants up as compared to today's low riding skinny jeans.
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Click composit photos to the right