Sarah Ellerton
The wonderfully talented Sarah Ellerton, author and artist of Inverloch and The Phoenix Requiem, agreed to share some images showing her evolution of digital painting. You can also find her artwork in Dreamless, and at deviantART. Sarah was recently interviewed for the Gutter Talk Podcast, which you can listen to here.
Sarah, thank you so much for sharing!
I’m a Unix Systems Engineer who dabbles in art in my spare time, concentrating mostly on webcomics, as I love using art to tell stories. I have one completed graphic novel “Inverloch” and two in-progress ones “The Phoenix Requiem” and “Dreamless”.
When I began painting digitally in 1999 (in Corel Photo Paint!) I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have instructions, or tutorials, or help, or critique. I just fumbled along – for many, many years – trying to figure things out on my own, and doing a terrible job of it, too. I came quite a way in the first two years, but after that it began to stagnate, since the only people who really commented on my work were family and friends.
Still, I kept at it, improving very little. It wasn’t until I began my first web comic in 2003 that I started to get some real feedback on my work. Unfortunately at that point I had stopped painting; the comic pages took up all of my time, and I lost a lot of my confidence and commitment when it came to sitting down for many hours on a single scene.
About a year ago I started painting again. I was surprised to discover the skills I had gained from painting comic backgrounds, but realised I could do much better if I took things seriously and made a real effort to improve. I think I’ve come further in the past year than I have in the past ten – I only wish I had the community help then as I do now.
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| The old image here is one of my first dozen digital colourings. I sketched and shaded it in greyscale on paper, then scanned it in and slapped down a bit of transparent colour over the top in Photo Paint (completely ruining the original sketch in the process, which was at least marginally decent). I knew not of the existence of manga or anime back then…which changed very quickly, and everything I did was anime-styled. I blame Final Fantasy 8 for that. Sadly in my attempt to try the style I completely forgot everything I knew about proportions. | ||||||||||
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| I knew not how to paint properly – the only thing remotely instructional I ever read was a book on traditional airbrushing, which involved masking off individual areas and painting those in full detail. So I did exactly that…you can probably see the awful choppy masked outlines around each part! I continued to work this way for a long time since I didn’t know any better, so there was no real meshing of colours, they didn’t bleed onto other shades. There was no texture. Everything was done with the airbrush tool – foolish now I think back on it! It’s good to experiment with lots of different brush types until you build up a nice little collection of favourites. | ||||||||||
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| Again, fairly obvious lack of anatomical knowledge on the old image. I stubbornly refused to use reference for *anything* because I had somehow convinced myself that to do so would be cheating. I’m still reluctant to use them now – it’s a mindset that has been hard to get out of. Don’t be afraid to use reference if you’re not 100% familiar with what something looks like. Using reference doesn’t mean tracing or copying…it’s rather like the old masters who would always have a live model to paint from. | |
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| This early image was my first attempt to paint a scene with a background. It reaffirmed in my mind that backgrounds were scary and I never wanted anything to do with them again! I think it was quite a while before I broke out of my comfort zone (portraits and posed figures on black backgrounds) and tried a full scene again. Unlike a lot of my early images – which I was usually very proud of – even *I* knew this image was terrible! No sense of perspective or scale, and the characters aren’t even in proportion to each other. I think I painted the background without masking, which may have been a first for me. It’s always good to try something new. It can be very easy – even for talented, experienced artists – to fall into a pattern of painting the same basic thing over and over. Because it’s comfortable, and you’re good at it. Try a different style, or just a different method, whenever you can. It’ll keep others interested in your work and turn you into a better artist overall. |
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Your drawings are simply superb and professional. None of the other webcomics even compare to yours, I can’t believe that you haven’t won “The Best Webcomic” for Phoenix Requiem! Anyway, I’m writing a series of books called “Unproclaimed Rights” maybe you can do the cover illustrations?
Haha, joking, I’ve only just started the plot and it might take another 2-3 years to finish writing it, forget publishing. Sactus Espiritus…
You work is beautiful!
I completely understand what you mean about art communities helping artists to improve. I also went through many years of relatively little improvement, while I feel that I’ve improved a great deal in the past couple years/ It’s amazing how much good can come from feedback.
I love 2001 Birgitte and wonder how she’d look if you painted her today. I personally stagnated shortly after stick figures. 1999 Angel really reminds me of the early days of my internet immersion. Even if she’s not realistic, she’s still beautiful.
And of course I love watching artists refine their styles. The art has refined greatly from the beginning of Inverloch to your current pages, but what I really get a kick from is seeing the art on stories like Zap! grow.
I read Inverloch and am now reading Phoenix Requiem, which I love (I admit, I’m a sucker for period costumes, and, well, for Jonas) and I wanted to say that I really love your art style and the element of realism that comes with your painting. I’m happy to have read that you had no instruction when learning how to paint, as that gives me hope I may someday figure out how to use art computer programs myself. Thank you so much for both these article and the work you put into your webcomics.
I’ve loved watching your art develop over time since I found your arts-angel site when I first began reading WoT. You’ve done a wonderful job!
I just finished Inverloch and I check Phoenix Requiem and Dreamless for updates weekly. The Phoenix Requiem is my all-time favorite webcomic. It’s great that you’re sharing your progress and pitfalls like this. You have improved so much and I can’t wait to see what you do in the future!
Wow! You’ve made SO much progress in ten years! Your art now is amazing! And I think every week that your pieces become more complex and beautiful!
That was a great article!! It’s encouraging to see your progress over a ten-year span. You’ve made significant improvements.
I would also like to give you kudo points for referencing The Wheel of Time; Robert Jordan was brilliant.
awesome article thing. sarah’s art is amazing and it’s nice to see that she has some more rough pieces among the diamonds. although they’re still so much more beautiful than anything I could pull off. XD I’m jealous!
Sarah’s stuff is brilliantly amazing. The airbrushy stuff is marvelous, but I tend to hold her cel style stuff in high regard.
Your artwork is really beautiful. I’ve read Inverloch, and am following The Phoenix Requiem and Dreamless currently. I’ve been amazed at how rapidly your art skills have progressed, and I love it every time I see something new by you. Great job! And thank you for sharing. =) I especially love the “Thoughts Elswhere” picture. I literally stared at it for like ten minutes straight the first time I saw it.
So again, very beautiful work. I look forward to seeing more!
P.S. I had no idea you were a Wheel of Time fan. I think I like you even more now. =D Heehee.
-Talitha
Sarah. Thank you. SO MUCH. this is so inspiring.
I feel you on the referencing somehow equaling cheating mindset. It’s something I’m still trying to break myself of, as well!
whoops, typo.
I hope I will soon be able to create amazing things like yours!
:]
Sarah, I absolutely love your art and I will be able to create amazing things like yours!
I love Inverloch and the Phoenix Requiem very much. Dreamless is also very beautiful (tell Bobby that the story is amazing so far)
Keep up the good work!