Luisa Gonzaga is a freelance artist from the Philippines. With a love for illustration that started as a child, Luisa is a multi-talented artist who specializes in kid-friendly and fashion illustration styles. In this interview she shares with us her experience with Micro-stock sites, her love of vector, and the secret to drawing a great character illustration.
Q Hi Luisa, give us a little background bio of yourself; tell us where you’re from. What is a typical work day like for you?
Hi! I’m a 29 year old freelance artist living in my wonderful tropical country, Philippines. I work from home which is challenging since family life can be quite distracting, but once it’s 9am I get right to my latest vector artwork. One of the things I find challenging to follow is sticking to a personal schedule and using my time wisely.
Q When did you get into drawing and illustration? Do you have any formal education in this field or are you self taught? As a child were you good at illustration, or has it evolved over a period of time?
As a kid I always loved to draw. I had a few old notebooks at home where most of the day I’d be stuck on it doodling. If you saw my old school textbooks they’d be filled with my doodles. I can probably say a teacher or two wasn’t happy about it. Fine Arts was what I always had in mind when I was little, and that’s what I studied in college. I enjoyed my classes in life drawing, sculpting, painting and film photography. The basics in traditional art & lessons in art history and appreciation are important for every artist. I truly enjoy my work and I have been consistently practicing to improve myself, so yes, my style has evolved over time. I can see some awkward designs I drew when I look through my portfolio a few years back!
Q What is your work-flow for creating a typical image from start to finish? What tools and applications do you mainly use?
My work-flow is simple. Everything starts with a sketch; I use an H or blue colored pencil for the initial rough lines, and define it with a 2b pencil. I then scan the drawing, maybe readjust a few lines in Photoshop, then use the sketch as a guide when coloring in AI.
Q You specialize in character illustration. I see a lot of lovely kids, pretty girls and cute animals in your portfolio. What are the key points that you keep in mind when designing a character? When you start, do you have a clear idea of the end result in your mind, or do you experiment with the look and feel of your characters?
In my designs, I find myself gravitating towards cartoony and kid-friendly artworks, which is what I enjoy drawing. I find its light-heartedness and joy appealing to illustrate. Usually I have a theme or scene in mind when sketching a character; and more often it’s a funny situation. I also imagine what the character does, their personality and emotion; which defines their appearance and posture. Sometimes I experiment with the appearance, or maybe look into some references of similar characters for the clothing or hairstyle. Color also plays an important role in the mood of an illustration.
Q You seem to be selling lot of your vector illustrations thorough micro-stock websites like iStockphoto, what are the advantages and disadvantages of selling your arts through these sites? How does micro-stock sites compare to selling illustrations yourself?
The main advantage of iStockphoto is that I have free reign over what original art to draw and upload in my portfolio. This is great for me since I get to think up themes or sets of artworks that I enjoy illustrating and submit at my own working pace. There’s also a monthly contest among the other illustrator contributors, which is a fun way to showcase your work in a challenging way. One of the disadvantages is that with so many talented artists in one site, your work might not get noticed easily, especially for a starting contributor. But once you’ve set up quality and consistent work in your portfolio, your hard work will be rewarded.
Q Do you have any professional tips and advice for creating and preparing vector illustrations for micro-stock website? Among your illustrations, which one is your bestseller? What makes a designed piece or illustration successful?
The best advice I can give is, quality. Always review and re-review your work before submitting. Take note of the site’s requirements on vector submission. If you feel there’s that one shape or color adjustment that can improve you illustration better, do it. It’s also best to have your own unique style that stands out from the rest. One of my best-selling illustrations is “Hairstylist” which won in a previous monthly contest wherein the theme was Occupations. I think what made it stand out was the illustration style.
Q Among your illustration, which one is your personal favorite and why is it your favorite? Do you have any specific plans for the future direction of your artwork and illustrations?
I have two illustrations that are my favorite among my recent works: Mad Scientist and Bleeding Heart. I like the first one because of this character’s personality; as for the second one, I find the exaggeration of the situation amusing. I don’t really have any specific plans for my artwork in the future, I’m more on just going with what suits me and what I enjoy illustrating. I also list down ideas on illustrations I’m planning. Sometimes a funny idea can come when I’m working or going about my usual routine.
Q What is it about vectors that fascinates you? Would you like to share with us your favorite vectoring tool, tip or technique?
I like coloring in vector because of its simplicity, I like working with clean lines and shapes. My vectoring technique is quite simple, just trace with the Pen tool, cut and define shapes using Pathfinder, and I keep gradients to a minimum. For me, it’s more about creating appealing shapes for the design and picking the right color scheme to complete the whole illustration.
Q Do you ever get stuck with creativity block? What do you do to get out of it? Are there any artists that you feel had an influence on you? What websites do you visit on a regular basis for design inspiration?
Creativity block, yes. What I do is stop and do whatever tasks I have other than drawing or doodling. It helps to take a break once in awhile, unwind and recharge your energy. CGsociety, DeviantArt & Avalanche Software Art Blog, are the sites I usually go to look for inspiration. I also browse through interior design and crafts blogs.
Q Luisa, thanks for the interview. What message or advice would you like to give to aspiring artists and illustrators?
You’re welcome! My message would be, enjoy what you do, it will show in your work. Immerse yourself in a lot of visual references. Challenge yourself; keep busy doodling, sketching, and exploring new ways to illustrate.
Ma. Luisa Gonzaga on Web
Step 6
Create two small circles on guide 2, which will show the location of the nipples, the distance between the nipples is equal to the head height (90 pixels).
Step 7
Create axial lines of the legs. Let’s start with the hips. The hips are located at a certain angle to each other and reach to the horizontal 6. The knee of the right straight leg should be over the horizontal 6, the bent knee of the left leg should be placed below this horizontal. The knees are marked as ellipses. Now create the axial line of the shin. The shin of the left leg is shorter than one of the right leg, as the leg is bent and it is farther from the viewer.
Step 8
Draw the contours of the legs with straight lines. The hip narrows towards the knee, then the shin broadens down the knee in the shape of gastrocnemius muscle and then narrows again towards the foot.
Step 9
Now schematically draw the arms. Green line indicates the axis of the shoulder, the red line is the axis of the forearm. We assumed that the elbow is slightly higher the guide 3 (above the navel) in fact this is the way it is, you can check this out on your own figure. Hand is slightly higher the middle line (guide 4).
The girl will keep her hands on the sides, turn the green line clockwise relating to the point D, using the Rotate Tool (R). The hand in this position will be taken back a little bit, so the distance of DF will shorten to DG. Move the upper point of the forearm to the point G and turn it relating to this point. Using the same technique build the axial lines of the left hand.
Step 10
Draw the contours of the hands with straight lines. The arm narrows towards the elbow and from elbow towards the wrist.
Step 11
Draw the contour of the neck with straight lines, the blue arrows show the line bounding the trapezius muscle.
Step 12
Thus, the diagram is ready, lock the layer. Create a new layer called ‘Body’ over the ‘Diagram’ layer. In this layer we will create the body of a girl, guided by the points and lines of the diagram, as the visual aid I chose the red color as the color of the stroke, work using the Pen Tool (P).
Step 13
It will be convenient for our work if we create the body, arms, and legs as separate objects.
Step 14
Take the Ellipse Tool (L) and create breasts and position them in place.
Step 15
Now create hands. Using the Pen Tool (P) create the shape of a hand. Create Art Brush for the fingers. Using the Pen Tool (P) create the shape shown on the picture below; now drag this shape to the Brushes palette. Using the Pen Tool (P) draw the axis lines of the fingers and apply the created brush. Select the fingers and go to Object> Expand Appearance, then select the fingers and wrist, and press Add from pathfinder box. Using the same technique, create another hand.
Step 16
Now create the feet. Using the Pen Tool (P) create the shape of a foot and join this shape with a shin, using the Pathfinder box. Create another foot the same way.
Step 17
Fill all the shapes with the colour of your choice, I’ve used light brown (C3, M36, Y63 and K0) and outline with a black stroke in order to see the contours of the body, the stroke will be deleted later.
Step 18
Work out the details starting with the head. Take the template from the tutorial Modeling the Human Face in Illustrator and place it in the right place. Create the face, using the tips of this tutorial.
Step 19
Let us take a quick break from the body and create a background. Create a layer and name it ‘BG’, position it below all the layers. Now take the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a rectangle in the size of the document. Fill the rectangle with a linear gradient containing three colors: white, sky-blue, and blue.
Step 20
Feel less tired? Let’s get back to work. Suppose that the light source is to the left of the girl, therefore, the lights will be on the left and the shadows – on the right. Let us review the techniques of creating shadows. Create the shape of shadow with the pen (color shade (C10, M50, Y73 and K0). Copy the shape of shadow and paste it in back, deform as shown on the picture below, the fill color of this shape is the same as the color of the skin (see step 18). Select both shapes and apply the Blend (Object> Blend> Make ), set the Smooth Color in the dialog box.
Now copy the shape of the body and paste it in front, move up the copy in the layers palette so that it seems higher than Blend. Select the upper body shape and the blend and go to Object> Clipping Mask> Make. If you do not like the result, you can always edit original shapes included in the Blend using the Direct Selection Tool (A).
Step 21
Thus, we have created all the shadows and lights on the body of the girl. There are a few stages of creating shadows and lights on the pictures below. Notice that I use the color (C0, M27, Y50 and K0) as the color of the light areas. You can use a linear or radial gradient on some easy sections. Red arrows on the picture below show the location of lights, and the blue ones show the location of shadows.
Conclusion
I hope that through simple and understandable methods offered in this tutorial, you will realize that it is quite possible to draw a nice human figure. Work hard and if you learn to draw people, you can draw almost anything. But remember, the secret to success is perseverance.
