When Riverside Theatre contacted me to work with them on their Shakespeare Festival 10th Anniversary campaign, I was thrilled. They already had a great idea to creatively spring off from- to illustrate the Bard surrounded by woodland creatures and fairy folk, all enjoying a twilight play at the Riverside Theater. I’ve spent many a summer evening myself in those seats at Riverside. The exceptional performances and the enchanting atmosphere of the open-aired theater are magic memories. Making this illustration would be a pleasure!
How does the illustration process begin for a project like this? First, I research some of the images I’ll be drawing. I take photos of the theater itself, look at the few images of Shakepeare that exist, read a little Shakespeare to really get me in the mood, and then start drawing!
I start with a pencil sketch first. I wanted to have a wide variety of creature companions- recognizable North American woodland critters like the bobcat, bear, ducks, squirrels, deer, opposum, etc. When Jody Hovland told me about how occasionally, a frog or two from the City Park pond find their way to the theatre on play night, I knew I had to include them, too! A few sprites inspired from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the theatre box office, a glowing sunset and twinkling stars complete the sketch.
Next, I transfer the sketch to a piece of scratchboard, my favorite art medium. Scratchboard has a white clay under layer which is covered with black ink. The artist scratches off detail with a sharp tool, like an exacto-blade. They “scratch” off what they want white and leave what they want black, with results that mimic a woodcut. Later, the white areas can be colored. Here are a couple photos of the Shakespeare piece in the process of being scratched out.
When the scratching is complete, I have a black and white image that I then scan into Photoshop on my computer. I may “clean up” a few details here (erase lines I don’t like, add a few that might help “punch up” an area). Then I print this image onto watercolor paper. At this point, it’s like a page from a coloring book; I color in the image with watercolor and dyes.
While I paint, my board is covered with lots of stuff; paint bottles and palettes, an extra piece of paper to play with colors, samples of other pieces I have done to give me ideas for color combinations, a water bowl, a coffee cup, and sometimes a visiting cat!
The actual rendering of the final art takes several steps that I do over a couple days. The initial research and composition work stretch over a couple weeks.
All in all, it was a very satisfying project. I like how the moon turned out, almost like an audience member itself! I loved drawing the many different animals, the rabbit and owl and frogs especially. And I hope the Bard doesn’t mind having luna moth colored tights on! I really enjoyed the opportunity to be part of this wonderful Iowa City icon.
- Claudia McGehee
For more information about Claudia, or to see more of her work... visit her blog at http://claudiaillustration.blogspot.com/
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