Original Photo
An illustration goes through a series of carfully executed stages before becoming a finished piece. On this page you will see various stages of one illustration from the point after the illustration has been drawn out on illustration board.
The average illustration takes well over one-hundred hours to complete. The rigerous process is carried out with black ink. The process has no room for mistake for once one is made it can not be removed, and there for must be incorperated into the art.
Stage one is carried out by placing a layer of dots where the darkest portions of the illustration will be. Once that is acheived the second darkest part is filled in with stipple and then another layer of stipple added to the darkest regions.
As the process developes the illustration will begin to take on a 3-D formation. The layers are all darkened to their appropriate shade and then detail is started in the illustration. The detail is what defines a realistic stipple from an ordinary piece of art. Every single minute detail must be captured no matter how fine. As the detail stage is carried out the illustration will transform into such realism that it appears to be right in front of you. The entire procedure to stipple a Guile fine art illustration is on average between one to two-hundred hours of manual labor.
Any artist can tell you that a piece of work is truely never complete until the art tells you that it is done. Artist usually will let any piece of art sit around for weeks after it appears to be complete. In this process it is scanned by the artist's eyes, minor changes are made if needed and then the artist eventually accepts the work he has done and the piece is concidered complete. Some of the worlds most famous artists have took years to complete one peice, even decades if needed.
The average illustration takes well over one-hundred hours to complete. The rigerous process is carried out with black ink. The process has no room for mistake for once one is made it can not be removed, and there for must be incorperated into the art.
Stage one is carried out by placing a layer of dots where the darkest portions of the illustration will be. Once that is acheived the second darkest part is filled in with stipple and then another layer of stipple added to the darkest regions.
As the process developes the illustration will begin to take on a 3-D formation. The layers are all darkened to their appropriate shade and then detail is started in the illustration. The detail is what defines a realistic stipple from an ordinary piece of art. Every single minute detail must be captured no matter how fine. As the detail stage is carried out the illustration will transform into such realism that it appears to be right in front of you. The entire procedure to stipple a Guile fine art illustration is on average between one to two-hundred hours of manual labor.
Any artist can tell you that a piece of work is truely never complete until the art tells you that it is done. Artist usually will let any piece of art sit around for weeks after it appears to be complete. In this process it is scanned by the artist's eyes, minor changes are made if needed and then the artist eventually accepts the work he has done and the piece is concidered complete. Some of the worlds most famous artists have took years to complete one peice, even decades if needed.
Stipple Stages Gallery
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Guile
The Process
In printmaking, dots may be carved out of a surface to which ink will be applied, to produce either a greater or lesser density of ink depending on the printing technique. In engraving, the technique was invented by Giulio Campagnola in about 1510. Stippling may also be used in engraving or sculpting an object even when there is no ink or paint involved, either to change the texture of the object, or to produce the appearance of light or dark shading depending on the reflective properties of the surface: for instance, stipple engraving on glass produces areas that appear brighter than the surrounding glass.
The technique became popular as a means of producing shaded line art illustrations for publication, because drawings created this way could be reproduced in simple black ink. The other common method is hatching, which uses lines instead of dots. Stippling has traditionally been favored over hatching in biological and medical illustration, since it is less likely than hatching to interfere visually with the structures being illustrated (the lines used in hatching can be mistaken for actual contours), and also since it allows the artist to vary the density of shading more subtly to depict curved or irregular surfaces.
Images produced by half toning or dithering and computer printers operate on similar principles (varying the size and/or spacing of dots on paper), but do so via photographic or digital processes rather than manually. These newer techniques have made it possible to convert continuous-tone images into patterns suitable for printing, but artists may still choose stippling for its simplicity and handmade appearance. The Wall Street Journal features stippled portraits known as hedcuts in its pages, as part of its long-standing avoidance of photographs.
The technique became popular as a means of producing shaded line art illustrations for publication, because drawings created this way could be reproduced in simple black ink. The other common method is hatching, which uses lines instead of dots. Stippling has traditionally been favored over hatching in biological and medical illustration, since it is less likely than hatching to interfere visually with the structures being illustrated (the lines used in hatching can be mistaken for actual contours), and also since it allows the artist to vary the density of shading more subtly to depict curved or irregular surfaces.
Images produced by half toning or dithering and computer printers operate on similar principles (varying the size and/or spacing of dots on paper), but do so via photographic or digital processes rather than manually. These newer techniques have made it possible to convert continuous-tone images into patterns suitable for printing, but artists may still choose stippling for its simplicity and handmade appearance. The Wall Street Journal features stippled portraits known as hedcuts in its pages, as part of its long-standing avoidance of photographs.
Stippling
Stippling is the technique of using small dots to simulate varying degrees of solidity or shading. In a drawing or painting, the dots are made of pigment of a single color, applied with a pen or brush; the denser the spacing of the dots, the darker the apparent shade—or lighter, if the pigment is lighter than the surface. This is similar to—but distinct from—pointillism, which uses dots of different colors to simulate blended colors.
copyright 2010
Stages 1 - 9 Description
Stage 1 - The first layer of stippple is added to the illustration with trhe darkest shades being filled in. At this point there is no detail being added into the piece and the piece has not even been fully drawn out onto the illustartion board.
Stage 2 - The background, neck, and shirt all begin to be filled; along with the continuatiomn to finish drawing the illustration onto the board.
Stage 3 - The hair lips and eyes are begining to be developed.
Stage 4 - The hair is further detailed, while all other shades are pushed back into the page by darkening with more stipple.
Stage 5 - More of the hair is filled in.
Stage 6 - Detail is being added at this stage to bring the illustration to life.
Stage 7 - Hair folicals are added to make the fibers real.
Stage 8 - The illustration is darkened with stipple until the shades are correct for the lighting.
Stage 9 - All the final minute details are added to complete the piece.
Stage 2 - The background, neck, and shirt all begin to be filled; along with the continuatiomn to finish drawing the illustration onto the board.
Stage 3 - The hair lips and eyes are begining to be developed.
Stage 4 - The hair is further detailed, while all other shades are pushed back into the page by darkening with more stipple.
Stage 5 - More of the hair is filled in.
Stage 6 - Detail is being added at this stage to bring the illustration to life.
Stage 7 - Hair folicals are added to make the fibers real.
Stage 8 - The illustration is darkened with stipple until the shades are correct for the lighting.
Stage 9 - All the final minute details are added to complete the piece.