In Depth Process: Umbilical

Hello all! This In Depth Process will go over the tools and materials I used to create this piece titled Umbilical. I created this piece as an assignment for one of my illustration courses. The prompt was to incorporate a 3D element, which I'll explain below.

MATERIALS:

• Paper
• Graphite Pencil
• Multicolored craft string
• Adobe Photoshop

I first began with the drawing of the dog with graphite on sketch paper. I wanted to keep the sketchy line work in the finished piece because I thought it would nicely mirror the fluid lines in the umbilical cord. Then I scanned the drawing into my computer and isolated the line work in Photoshop.

I decided to make my 3D element physically because I was having some issues with the 3D software option. The umbilical cord was created with craft string in several colors. I then positioned the cord how I wanted on a flat surface and took photographs of it with my phone. I sent the pictures to my computer, combined the best ones, and isolated them from the background. Finally, I combined the drawing layer and the cord layer, added some shadows to the cord to look like it was encompassing the dog, and played around with the color palette.  Then I was done! I've actually thought about revisiting this piece to see what I can do with it now that I am more fluent in Photoshop than I was at the time of the assignment. If you have any questions about tips and materials please feel free to comment or email me! 

-Sarah