Character Sketches 2- The Grand High Witch & Co.

Instead of pushing on with the boy sketches, I turned my attention to the Grand High Witch and the others as I was looking forward to drawing these much more and thought I would be able to produce some drawings I was happier with for this. 

I started by doing some really quick, loose sketches of 50s style women and different clothing, like the shirt-dress, a pencil skirt and a halterneck swing dress. 

I liked the middle drawing of the GHW, she looks almost like a cross between Grease's Frenchie and Rizzo. This was the sketch I wanted to refine more, which I did below. I first drew the Witch in pencil and went over this in black Fineliner to emphasise the lines. I photocopied the drawing so that I could experiment with colour.

I experimented with watercolour paints and some different colour palettes. Although the brown and green theme looked nice, it definitely didn't scream 'Super hot and powerful Witch Bitch' which is what I was aiming for, while the sassy blue and red theme nailed it. The only thing I would change about it would be her hair- jet black would look a lot more sophisticated, the red hair is too soft and girly for a powerful witch. 

I did two more really quick doodles of other witches wearing everyday clothes. I purposefully made them different to the Grand High Witch as these witches are more run-of-the-mill while the Grand High Witch reigns supreme over all others.

Character Sketches 1- Boy

The first character I started sketching was the Boy. This was because he was the main character (alongside the grandma) and although he is only an actual human for maybe one third of the book, I felt that it was important to accurately capture his character through clothing and expression.

The character I conjured up in my head was a slightly mischievous looking boy with ruffled hair and a gangly frame. He wore shorts and a striped t shirt with boots, a very typical outfit for a rambunctious young boy in the 50s, practical clothes which were fit for all the rough and tumble he would be getting into.

The first sketch I did was the portrait in the upper left hand corner. I didn't like this much as the drawing looks rather forced and too similar to the drawings I did in the past of this character- I wanted to get away from those drawings completely.

I started sketching possible outfits for him in the middle and these led to the boy sketched on the right hand side. I liked the little vest and shirt combo, children of the 50s were usually dressed like miniature adults so this is a perfect design for him. I tried to give him some discernable features that would make him unique in his 'mouse form', such as plenty of freckles which would appear as mottles fur, an upturned nose and a calflick in his hair. This led me to do some little sketches of his mouse form which are the drawings I like best of this page because even though I was relaxed when drawing all this the mouse sketches look a lot more natural.

Gobbolino the Witch's Cat by Ursula Moray Williams

Recently I've been thinking about other illustrated books that I enjoyed reading as a child and immediately thought of this one. Gobbolino the Witch's Cat is the story of a kitten who never wanted to be an evil, mischievous witch's cat- he wanted to be a house or farmcat that could just curl up beside the fire instead of stirring cauldrons and making spells.

I really loved the illustrations in this book because of their scribbly style. The author Ursula illustrated the book herself which I thought was a great idea because an author would know exactly where each illustration should be and where it would be needed most, and would be able to execute it exactly the way they wanted. However not all authors have an artistic talent like Ursula and so there exists jobs for people like me. :D

Just like in Black Beauty there are little vignettes throughout the book which is something I'm beginning to realise is a feature I like in books, as well as chapter illustrations. I love that the drawings in this book in particular are almost just refined sketches- they remind me of my reportage and sketchbook work in that they're not perfect but have a quaint charm about them (maybe because they are so imperfect).

 There are quite a lot of illustrations in this book, more than usual for a story of this length. However although this would be impractical for a lot of artists, because of the style of the work, it meant that it wouldn't be so difficult to put in as many illustrations as want or needed.
While working through The Witches I identified quite a lot of illustrative spikes, many being small vignettes, and so maybe I could try doing my own drawings in a quicker, colourless style to be able to achieve this.