Creating my Travel Topanga map

It was an interesting journey to get to the finished product for the map. Things did not always go as expected, but I adapted and I think that the end project was better because of it.

Step 1: Idea

When I read about the map contest through the regular email updates from Nate and Salli of They Draw and Cook/They Draw and Travel, I thought that this sounded like fun. Plus, while I've submitted recipes to their sites, I still had not done a map. I started with a couple of lists that I thought I would like to work on: cool locations for artists to visit, driving the back roads of LA and Ventura counties, some of my favorite places on Topanga Blvd.

The hubby and I thought that I would have the easiest time and the most fun with the Topanga one, since that is a road we know well and travel frequently. Plus, so many of the locations I liked had a ton of personality all their own.

Step 2: Initial concept and research

What I had in mind was a COMPLETELY different look then the end product. I initially wanted to do watercolor renderings of each of the locations and then combine them in some way with an inked aerial map that I had hand drawn using existing knowledge of the boulevard and looking at (not tracing) Google Maps to confirm cross streets and provide a smidgen of accuracy to the look of the main street and freeway locations.

Later that same day, I went out and painted my first location:

A couple of days later, I painted a second location:

I soon realized that I didn't have enough daylight after work and commuting to get all the paintings done on site. I tried photographing the locations on the weekend so I could paint at home, but that didn't pan out either. I needed an alternate plan.

Step 3: Plan B

My fallback plan was based on a birthday invite I worked on a few weeks earlier, where I hand created all the typography, then colored it digitally.

I pulled out a clean piece of Bristol board and cut it size for the map dimensions needed for a project. Then I used a red pencil to rough out a title and lay in a map at the bottom of the page. Over the course of the next week the map grew as I doodled out typographic signs for the locations I had marked on the map.

Some of the signs pull from elements of the existing logos and signage, others pull in elements of the buildings, and a few just pull in the overall feel I got from the place and are more loosely interpreted.

Step 4: Inking

I started inking in order of heirarchy, starting with the title and map. All the inking was done in a single color, with a Faber Castell Pitt artist pen in Dark Sepia. I used the S (superfine) thickness, except in areas where there are very thickly laid colors, such as the title.

Step 5: Digital

I scanned the inked drawing in two parts, merged them in Photoshop, then brought the entire map into Illustrator. I used three different live traces of the drawing, so I could pick and choose the best option for each element, particularly the very small lettering for the street names. After tweaking a few spacing, sizing, and kerning issues, I colored each element (title, map, shop name) in illustrator using a pre-existing color palette I had, but brought them all into the master Photoshop file separately in order to ensure that I could edit things on the fly if I changed things later (which I did.)

Behind all the illustrated elements, I added individual layers for the solid background color, the strokes of white, and all the secondary colors that appear in the piece, such as the purple frosting on the donut for Blinkie's. Shamefully, all of these were laid in with a very archaic device: the mouse! Yes, a mouse. And yes, the master file has LOTS of layers.

But I'm not done yet...

Step 6: Secret Photoshop MAGIC (...or how I got the cool colors in the title)

I decided to pull the whole piece together with an element of texture, which I always like. I originally was going to use a royalty free stock image to create the texture, but then I didn't want to have to worry about licensing issues since I was submitting this to a contest. So an hour before the entry is due I'm frantically scrambling to find a particular photograph, taken from the hills of Topanga, on a particular day, sometime in the last 5 or so years. Needless to say, no luck.

Then a friend saved the day when she saw one of my paper scraps where i test my watercolors when painting a project. After scanning, I duplicated, rotated, flipped, and cloned until that scrap filled the entire piece.

I applied this texture and a photo of the woods from one of our local hikes to the Photoshop file, tweaking layer styles (overlay, screen, lighten) and opacity for both of the texture elements until I was happy with the result. The darker and lighter brush strokes on the page gave the solid colors in the title added life and character that wasn't present in the original texture I had planned to use.

They Draw and Travel You-Topia map contest

I have entered a submission into an illustrated map contest:

http://www.theydrawandtravel.com/maps/travel-topanga-canyon-blvd-in-los-angeles-gail-buschman

I had a ton of fun working on and creating the map these past 3 weeks and practically created a new illustration style for myself on the fly! More to come...

Illustration Friday: Grounded

He was grounded until the rains were over, but all he wanted to do is hop.

Just a quick little sketch. I drew the frog over the weekend and he just sat waiting for a story. I was thinking of creating a crowd of frogs, but the rain and lily pad won out.

B3 - Bumble Bee Belly

Just having fun and practicing my new approach to illustrations. I was doing good on the time until I thought he should be fuzzy....and then i undid the fuzzy. oh well. On to the next one.

Bully Bot

I'm trying to explore a looser, quicker technique to my illustrations. Here's my first attempt that may or may not turn into a larger project. Expect more robots to come.

This is also doubling as the graphic for my funny new years party invites.

What do you think? Does it need more polish? More color?

Illustration Friday: Gesture

He timidly made a gesture of affection toward her.

So during my photo research at work this week I found such an awesome photo:

istockphoto.com

That trunk, with its curl, was begging to be a caricature of some sort. Out come the pens and markers and voila! Blushing elephant. I love the pink/red marker that I used on his cheeks, but it's scary to use sometimes because it is such a strong color. I did use a gray pencil to draw in the elephant originally, but tried to keep the artwork loose and scribbley.

Happy Birthday Bella

Happy birthday to a most wonderful niece and Goddaughter! You are growing up too quickly!

Illustration Friday: Remedy

"Choose your remedy wisely."

There actually is a story behind this one: At dinner, while trying to figure out what to draw for illustration friday, we had some almonds on the table for our salad and the package read "all natural!" Well, the hubby wanted someone to make a product that markets how UN-natural it is. So I did. For more amusement, it was suggested that the side of the label read "mild side effects include death..."

It may be darker then my usual doodles, but I guess I had a bit of quirky humor going on today. Now that I think about it, "humor" would have been a good term to add to the bottles, especially when I was running out of label ideas. It was a lot of fun to lay in the shades of gray with the markers, and I got to put my toe into the steampunk craze that is quite fun.

Happy Trees

So not all my sketches turn out exactly how I want them too. This one was supposed to be much more regular, almost pixelated placement of trees. I almost gave up on it a number of times, but I kept at it. It's growing on me.

Illustration Friday: Midsummer Night

It started with a continuous outline of their silhouettes, some heads added Tom Gauld-style, then the wings...and a perfect opportunity for me to draw some patterns, since I've been seeing interesting patterns everywhere recently. A little bit of crosshatching for texture, a lot of blocking in solids and a touch of typography. It was very interesting to see how the natural variations with the line work of the silhouettes created a range of unique characters, including a few matrons, a few innocents, one that may be pregnant, and Titania, who happens to be the tallest of them all.

Bird of a different feather

This doodle was inspired in part by the baby birds nesting in our balcony light fixture. I went to clean out the 2 nests that were there. The first one was empty, but when I pulled out the second, there were 3 little babies inside. I didn't have the heart to throw them out, so I carefully put the nest back and hoped for the best. The parents did come back and as far as I can tell, the babies are doing well. They sure chirp a lot when it's feeding time!

Bad Day

I didn't have a bad day, but this guy sure is! Another quick doodle, based on a giant-mouthed fish I doodled last week or the week before.

Elephant Greetings

In the same vein as the Illustration Friday post, I did a second ink doodle. It's a lot of fun and i just keep telling myself if it wasn't what I originally intended exactly, that's fine. It still looks cool and more relaxed than some of my other stuff. It's fun too!

Plus, I doodled while I watched Microcosmos, a cool French documentary about bugs, and on a wide screen TV they are BIG!!! And since the are not crawling on me, they are coooooool!

Illustration Friday: Launch, sweep....and gulp?

3....2....1....Blastoff!

I've been replaying Somorest 2 and thinking of replaying Machinarium. Somorest gets a little bit odd in their artwork sometimes, but I'm in love with the world of Machinarium. It's all scribbly and imperfect, and that just adds to the charm. I felt like drawing something with aliens, although this drawing is more about their world. I could always add a UFO in space if i wanted too...

And because I didn't post it when it was the correct week, here's the IF sketch I did for Sweep...with a hungry fishy hanging out at the bottom of the page. I'll need to do something with him at some point. He's kinda cool

Character design class sketches 1

I'm working on stuff right now, but wanted to post some of the better sketches I did this past semester in my first Character Design class. It's almost harder than life drawing, because you have to analyze the pose and then interpret it and add personality and a story. Many of the drawings were frustrating, but after weeding out all the bad ones, i still was left with a pretty decent pile of sketches. I'll be posting them intermittently over the next couple of weeks.

Renaissance Pleasure Faire

Fun times and fun sketches. It was easy to find characters with personality there! I particularly enjoyed the belly dancers and flamenco dancers.

Illustration Friday: Stir

Sometimes emotional turmoil stirs within...and sometimes something tragic happens

...and sometimes it's both.

I've been feeling...melancholic...recently, not sure why. I have a lot of reasons I could list, but in light of the news about the Japan earthquake and tsunami that hit today, they just seem irrelevant. My prayers are with everyone in Japan and everyone who has family in Japan.

Our friends' families in Japan are ok. Thank goodness for small blessings.

Illustration Friday: Swarm

I couldn't NOT post for Illustration Friday when the topic, swarm, was so perfectly suited to my obsession with drawing bugs. I just don't know why I waited until Thursday to post when the drawing was finished on Sunday.

I think, perhaps, because this week has been a little off-kilter. I'm settling into the semester and realizing that I don't have enough time in the world to do all the things I want to do, particularly when I am easily distracted. I came to the decision/realization that for my own sanity, I was going to have to drop my Saturday drawing-on-location class that I have LOVED taking for the previous 2 (3?) semesters. Knowing that Will's class often has a waiting list of eager students and knowing that I would be missing 3 out of 6 classes because of traveling for work and other factors didn't make me any less reluctant or less....let down. I've enjoyed exploring my adopted hometown through these excursions, and I definitely know the freeways of northern LA much better these days. (Ignoring the fact that I still get lost on surface streets)

It didn't help that I am most definitely off schedule with the Picture Book Dummy project because I like making things complex and 2-3 characters won't do when you can have 20 (or more!). I am not stopping just because i'm behind, I'm just going to take a bit longer. I'm having a great time creating costumes for all the characters and my Gesture Drawing class is definitely helping with that.

It most definitely didn't help that I had a series of eye exams today in preparation for a corrective eye surgery I'm planning on having at the end of next month. Eye ultrasounds are SO NOT fun!

Luckily, I have a weekend with good friends, random doodling and massive amounts of silliness and junk food to look forward to! Target acquired! To the flowers!

IF: Surrender

A last minute illustration Friday entry which unintentionally coincides with the Chinese New Year: Year of the Rabbit.

This is my first digital painting with a Wacom tablet! woohoo! I'm learning new things. eventually, I'll be confident enough to work in color. But for now, this is good practice.

Sketchcrawl 30: Natural History Museum

I attended the 30th SketchCrawl at the Natural History Museum today, but only a few crawlers actually saw me. My friend and I decided to draw outside, rather than go in. I've been wanting to draw more buildings to practice perspective. Plus, it was a beautiful day outside. Once you get past the austere front entrance of the building, there is some beautiful architecture at the NHM. Some kid even took a photo of my drawing.

The only minor disappointment was that I was told there was a FANTASTIC sketchcrawl turnout for Los Angeles inside the museum. Oh well. Hopefully, I'll get to see them all at the next crawl.

All my scribble drawings of people today reaffirm the need for me to get back to my 10 minute daily sketches. My quick sketch needs help.