Done!

Here is the final result of the crab/cove picture.

Whilst I was painting it I felt it would benefit visually from being a beach rather than a cove, so I removed the rocks and replaced them with sand, sea and more sky.

I also dropped the detail on the boy's face so that the image gelled more cohesively.

I'm very pleased with the results though I'm experimenting with a new style at the moment and I'm still getting used to it.

New pictures soon!

Gone fishing

So here is the boy who's going to be catching crabs in the rock pool. I wanted him to be as cute as possible so that it felt even more sinister that he was being stalked by a ginormous crab.

Crusty Crustaceans!

I loved the idea of the little boy crab fishing whilst he's being watched by a huge crab so I decided to turn it into a full illustration.

I've done a simple colour block to get the feel for the composition and tone of the image, which I wanted to feel nostalgic and whimsical but at the same time a bit mysterious. In order to not make the image feel too dark I decided to choose a more vibrant colour for the crab. I chose a pinky sky because I feel this best conveys the feeling of nostalgia, like looking at sepia coloured photos.

Coves, caves and crabs

Last week I went camping in Cornwall near the Lizard peninsula. On one of the walks we went on I came across this awesome little jetty in a cove. It had a rusty old cog wheel at the top of the slope and then a tiny beach of rocks across the water. I thought it would be a great starting point for and illustration so I took lots of pictures and did some sketches...

The crank (complete with someone's doggy bag...at least they picked it up...)

The slope down to the water

The cove with cave

This is a quick water colour sketch I did of the cove, complete with a little doodle I did based on an idea I had for an illustration about a boy crab fishing being snuck up on by a giant crab...

I gave the sketch some colour to use as a guide.

Now to make an image!

Shrinking...

Progress on page 13. In this page the main character (Ruben) has been shrunk by the Tooth Collectors (Aqua and Cole) so he can go with them to their home world of Dentalia.

I wanted to capture a sense of scale in the background, and an expression of dumbfounded wonderment on Ruben's face as the furniture begins to loom overhead.

I'm not sure if it's finished just yet, the book describes lots of coloured light as he shrinks, but I can't decide if it's too much or not enough....

Website

As I mentioned previously I have a website. If you like my work then go check it out for more of my stuff, also you can hit up the contact page if you're looking for an Illustrator :-)

www.danieltarrant.co.uk

Twitter

So I joined twitter yesterday...well actually I joined a while ago, but as is the case with most of these things, I only got round to putting it to good use yesterday.

You can follow me here.

The Tooth Collectors

I'm currently doing the illustrations for a book called "The Tooth Collectors" by Ola Laniyan-Amoako. The book is being published by Urbantopia, check out their website for more information.

I'm about halfway through as far as the illustrations are concerned, and it's looking good.

I'll try to post updates as I go forward. Just working on page 13, should have something to show later today.

Start

Hello. My name is Daniel Tarrant and I'm an Illustrator.

After having this blog for just under 3 years it's about time I did something with it.


I thought I would start this blog as a way to show all the bits n' bobs that nobody usually sees. My sketches, work in progress, and even some personal projects and experimentation.

I have a website to showcase my portfolio, but if that's the main film, then this will hopefully be a nice "bonus feature." :)