Thick strikes of expressive marks and boldly sketched areas of shading fill Joe Lillington’s illustrations with a lot of movement and feeling. He tells us about the parts of his process where he works digitally while still keeping drawing at the core of his work.
While Joe does enjoy the ease of working that the computer can give, his work always keeps the traditional drawing element as the foundation for his images.
His drawing style and the freedom of the pencil marks are where his work really comes into its own and is a strong part of his distinct style.
We also really like the characters and scenes he creates, with a narrative quality that perfectly lends itself to the various books he does.
Creating intriguing fantasy worlds seems to be an area he is drawn to, and something he definitely has no problem making inviting.
All my illustrations start as pencil drawings and sketches, sometimes I also use thin layers of paint on the original drawing to create more tone.
I usually scan in the drawing and colour using Photoshop. I like the flexibility of Photoshop to be able to change the colours of the lines to soften areas when needed. I try to create a slightly painterly feel in Photoshop with my use of texture and colour.
I still like to do traditional painting, especially when it involves making some kind of object, rather than just a flat painting— like my recent painted fold up castles for Fold Collaborative.
© Joe Lillington, 2014