Exercise: Getting the gist

I went with an editorial from the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/penguin-337-editorial
It’s a fantastic little story of a penguin that escaped from Tokyo Sea Life Park.
The article printed out and keywords identified.

Identifying keywords

• small grab big attention
• Penguin 337
• great break
• swimming serenely
• park’s 12-foot walls
• cute
• hardy and versatile
• skiing on sand
• vulnerable to warming seas
• heartening dash for freedom
• not to forget the soaring mercury

Summarising the key words

• great break
• park’s 12-foot walls
• warming seas
• dash for freedom
• soaring mercury 

I’m going to create an image about .. a cute but strong penguin breaking free from captivity.

I started with a google search for ‘humboldt penguins’ as I didn’t have one to hand to study. I used the images to sketch up their markings, colours and general shapes and movement. I put down loose random lines and then identified lines of interest to start building up some characters.

These are 2 digital sketches, no real referencing this time other than my character sketches and some poses I had in my mind, running jump to freedom and just plain running. Reasonably pleased with these although I found it difficult with the feet from the above sketch. 

Finished watercolour of the super penguin that jumped a 12-foot wall to escape with the tokyo bay in the background.

2 finished watercolours, top is the running penguin, the right side of the picture has a very subtle concrete background and to the left a warm orange representing freedom. Bottom is a penguin breaking out (slightly inspired by the escape from Alcatraz), brick wall background and a glow around the penguin.

Reflection

It was a very interesting exercise exploring ideas around a real piece of text, an exercise well worth repeating. I am fairly pleased with the results and did manage at last to blend watercolour tones in the penguin at the top of page marker 13, an effect I have much wanted to learn to do.