Hello, I’m Fiona and I am an illustrator who lives and works in sunny Tasmania, Australia. I am completing the Children’s Illustration Diploma with Maggy Roberts.
I am enjoying this course very much; I’ve only been drawing for about three years since I inherited an art studio. It so happened, at the time, that the idea for a children’s book was kicking around in my head and it occurred to me that this might be a happy coincidence. Long story short, I started messing around with ink, wound up enrolling in a few courses and have now produced my first children’s book. Entirely back-to-front, of course: one should really finish the courses first.
The image Maggy has suggested I share today is my version of Firey Fred, the unfortunate dragon required for assignment 3. Poor Fred is only small and he has just realised that his hot breath has accidentally set alight a nearby thatched roof. The assignment requires the image be produced as a colourful vignette suitable for young children but sets few other boundaries.
Tasmania isn’t really known for its thatched roofs so I had to rely upon photographs to get a feel for what was required. Fred himself was created as a combination of sea horse and lizard with a little bit of bunyip rolled in. Working on the sketch my major concern was to capture the expression on Fred’s face. I wanted to find an unusual perspective that would allow his face and posture to be the focus of the picture and I felt that if I could get these things right then everything else would follow. Thinking about how a small child might react in a situation like this, I could just see a little face, wide-eyes horrified, peeping out from its hidey hole at the chaos they have accidentally created. But what can you hide behind on a roof? The chimney! He could be hiding behind the chimney! With that idea, the rest of the composition just unfolded itself, including the idea of using the flame and smoke to frame the vignette itself.
The final image was produced using ink and brush. As suggested in the assignment I used only very light line and applied different colours wet on wet to create texture in Fred’s scales and in the fire itself. Colouring the image was a lot of fun; it’s always a treat to be able to apply really bright colours undiluted.
I am happy with the way Fred turned out; his expression has turned out much as I hoped it would. If you like Fred and would like to see more of my work, I post most of my LAC assignments to my blog at fiona.levings.blogspot.com.au or you can check out my book at themoonbow.weebly.com. Happy drawing!
Fiona Levings
Children’s Illustration Diploma
