Kendra

THE ASSIGNMENT

Create a thick, rich, painterly portfolio piece.

THE CHALLENGE

Create a multi-layered, beautiful illustration filled with immediacy and dimensionality, while also working as a flat abstraction.

GETTING STARTED

I dabble in photography. A nice byproduct of this is I have an abundance of source material when I want to play, a bit, with the paint.

One such photo session was with one of my favorite collaborators, Kendra Scott. We tend to create magical images, together. This particular session was a metamorphosis-themed concept, transitioning — visually and metaphorically — from a beautiful facade to raw vulnerability. You can see and read about this beautiful and emotional session, HERE and HERE.

One of my favorite images, from our experience, was this simple, yet elegant, back shot. The sensual forms and shapes would provide lots of opportunity to juxtapose bold strokes and textures, and see what might pan out, in a painting.



Using the paint in a sculptural way, I strove for economy of mark-making — a few marks to define the dimension of a shoulder blade or a mass of hair.

Red is one of my favorite colors to exploit, in a piece of art. It’s an automatic call-to-arms, visually, and emotionally. It lets the subconscious know there is a bundle of emotion, residing, within.

What better way to exploit red, than with green, its complement?

The photo has a much more subdued background, which works, for the photograph. But, for my illustration, there needed to be more for the eye to touch and experience. I decided it needed to remain a non-descript background, but still be filled with detail and depth, to add that richness and energy I was looking for. Layers of lines, shapes, dots, and negative space, all trigger the mind, in different ways, while still harmonizing within that single background space. The green colors are just subdued, enough, to not overpower the main statement of the red. That’s important for color balance.

THE FINAL ART

To further enhance a sense of beautiful, painterly mark-making that also happens to create a recognizable series of forms, a ragged black border seemed to be the perfect final touch. In addition to creating a frame, the border intersects and blends into the figure, separating the picture into three shapes (negative space to the left and right of the figure, and the figure, itself). In doing these things, the frame starts to trick the eye into choosing between a 3-dimensional form or a flattened abstraction. The mind is always trying to make choices as it attempts to make sense of the world.

This complex journey into a piece of art is what makes an eye want to come back and investigate. The question of what is real vs what is illusion is one of the most important questions art can pose to a viewer. It is just one aspect of art that makes it such an important part of the human experience.

My thanks to the amazing, Kendra, for creating beautiful images, with me, and helping to make this artwork, possible.



Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Pope John Paul II for the University of San Diego

On the fast track to sainthood, Pope John Paul II is not only one of Catholicism's more popular Popes, he is also one of 16 illustrations I was commissioned to create for the University of San Diego's President's Report.

The theme of 2009's report highlights people, places, and things that serve as influences to the school's mission and heritage. Reading the contextual clues, one can correctly deduce USD has a strong foundation in the Catholic church.

This president's report is a beautifully designed work of art in itself. Bound as a leather printed cover, many of the illustrations accompany their own month in an included calendar, and double as removable, collectible prayer cards.

The challenges

•Compose an illustration that not only fits the format of a 3.5 in. x 5.25 in. space, taking into consideration an elaborate border treatment which will cut into the art, but also produce an illustration that commands attention at a smaller size.

•Establish a color palette which complements warm tones of the document's layout, and brings depth and interest to the scene.

Light and depth through color

Where light hits an object most directly, color is most intense. As that object recedes in space, and falls into shadow, color cools and loses intensity. Color theory 101, to be sure, but these principles were key in helping me create a sense of depth. Without such depth, this scene would quickly turn uninteresting (not to mention flat).

To also keep interest up throughout the illustration, it was important to make sure shadows and highlights kept some color and didn't become too gray or white, respectively (After all, the thing needs to be pleasing to look at, right?). That sounds like a simple thing to do, but it takes planning. Notice how the white stripe on his robe is warmer at the shoulder where light hits and turns cooler as it moves away from the "hot spot." Squint your eyes and notice the value doesn't change too significantly. His position in space is largely aided through color.

Using color like this is helpful to add complexity to a small, seemingly non-complex, picture.

A strong picture starts with a strong composition

This is especially true for a smaller illustration. There's not as much real estate to grab viewers' attentions. Plus, being small, people don't have much patience to squint their way through a scene to pick out intricacies. Hence, the simply-composed but easily-recognizable posture of the 264th Pope.

Here is the illustration in its final layout.



Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day

"Say your prayers and light a fire." ~ from 21st Century Breakdown

It would have been easy to illustrate Billie Joe Armstrong, of Green Day, in a very animated pose with mouth a-twistin' to "¡Viva La Gloria!." That's how one expects to see him, right? However, in such a pose, the image starts to become all about the photo. I wanted to bring to life something more contemplative.

Round about 6:56 am, one fine day, I was in my car listening to the song, "Warning," on Lithium (54 on your Sirius-XM dial for XM subscribers). I thought to myself, Billie Joe Armstrong would make an interesting subject for an illustration. This is appropriate timing, too, since his band's latest effort is fresh on our minds.

This summer, I'm fortunate to be working with an amazing young illustrator named Becca Johnson. What better time to jump on Billie Joe, than as a demo?

With bold strokes, I engaged in a process, very cleverly coined by Becca, as "unpainting." It's very proprietary. In fact, I may have already said too much.

After knocking out phase one, we brought the piece into Photoshop, where the process shifted to value and then color.

With repetition, and as I become more comfortable with my process, or style, if you will, I'm always looking to strip away the unnecessary and distill paintings to the essence of what may (or may not) make them work. Glancing through the blog, one thing I notice is Billie's brush strokes are more prominent, and evidence of the human touch is on display with greater note than in some of my prior works.

With color, the obvious would have been to lather this piece in green. It turns out, Billie Joe's eyes are, indeed, green. So, look as you might, the only two spots of the aforementioned color are peering, contemplatively, in your direction.

Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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Willie Parker of the Pittsburgh Steelers

On this blog, I've posted a few of the illustrations I was fortunate to complete for the Upper Deck 2008 NFL Heroes series.

I think my favorite of the bunch is Willie Parker of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Apropos, since they happen to be facing-off against the Arizona Cardinals at Super Bowl 43 in Tampa, Florida next Sunday.

The color palette, texture, and pose all contribute to my favoring this painting.

Technically, I was also feeling pretty good about the way I was approaching these paintings by now, and my overall confidence level was high. Confidence tends to show in one's painting, just as it shows in any aspect of one's chosen endeavor.

I had settled into a nice layering technique that allowed a translucence, shown in the yellows in the jersey as well as the skin tones.

One challenge facing me with this painting was size. The completed illustration was done on an 8" x 10" canvas. Therefore, the face only occupied a small fraction of that area. My liner brush served me well, here.

I use acrylic paints for my color work -- atypical from many illustrators who tend to favor oils. I enjoy the quick drying capabilities of acrylic, as well as the challenge of figuring out how to manipulate it.

To my paint, I add a slow dry retarder, which allows me to manipulate it for a longer time than without. This additive also makes the paint very sensitive to being lifted off -- even with the most gentle of washes. A heavy hand can ruin the most beautifully laid spontaneous mark.

That little bit of loss of control brings just enough tension to the process to keep it interesting -- for me, at least.

Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
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