Wild and Wondrous: Before and After

There have been a few animals that I've replicated over the Wild and Wondrous series, and it's interesting to see how the style has changed over the course of the year.

The style for the Wild & Wondrous illustration series is coloring book style, and there are many different ways to approach it. I started out like many coloring pages, with patterns inside the subject. I realized after a few illustrations that the figures were too static and didn't feel alive. Also, when reprinted at smaller sizes, the patterns were too tiny to color in easily. So, I loosened up the style a bit.

It's okay to make changes in the middle of a project. Creating in a series allows for course-correction between each piece.

Here you can see the first bear illustration on the left, and the most recent on the right. The more recent one is softer, has more movement, and is easier to color in. The newer one also has more visual interest due to the background.

Next up are the wolves:

I drew a wolf 3 times throughout this series, and there was definitely improvement from the first take. I was so unhappy with the way the first wolf turned out that it caused me to reevaluate the style of the entire series up to that point and make intentional changes.

Sometimes it takes seeing something you don't like to motivate you enough to make necessary changes.

Some intentional changes I made were to soften the figures, give them more movement, and add in backgrounds and subtler patterns. Out of these three wolves, though, my favorite is the second one.

Another animal that was repeated in this series was a cougar:

Again, the second one has more visual interest. Instead of being in a head-on view, it is in a position of movement. Because it was made right after I changed styles, it isn't as good as the pieces near the end of the series. However, it's paving the way for the other illustrations to get there.

Recognizing and appreciating the stepping stones allows for additional growth.

The last animal that was repeated was a lion:

This is a great one to look at because the lion on the left was made at the very beginning of 2016, and the one on the right was made at the very end. So, nearly an entire year of illustrating had passed between one and the other. Looking at the piece on the left, I would have never guessed that it would be part of the same series as the piece on the right. The new drawings definitely feel more confidant and mature than the earlier ones.

I love that the newer illustrations aren't as static or heavy, and that they are in environments. I'm happy about where this series ended up. It just took a while of muckraking to get to a better place.

I like to see change, and looking back on this last year's series, I love to see the evolution of the artwork.