Identifying tools and materials 

My personal style of artwork is pen and ink drawing. As I am most comfortable with this medium, for this exercise I want to take myself out of my comfort zone and select oil paint illustrators. I found using oil paints a challenge in previous exercises, however I have been looking for an opportunity to use them once again, so here it goes. 

Oil paint Illustrators

Will Terry

Children's book illustrator, titles  include: Bonaparte falls apart, The Three Little Gators, Skeleton for Dinner, The Three Bully Goats. 

Will Terry often starts  his artwork using oil paints and finishes digitally, Photoshop. 

"One of the problems with painting in traditional mediums - like oils for instance is the lack of control or the tedious nature of finishing details - not to mention the fact that you can't undo, adjust colour, or zoom in". 

The use of colour in these two illustrations is exquisite. The blue of the sky, getting darker the higher into the sky you go, against the yellows of the meadow. A fox jumping happily through the long grass. Darker tones of the trees and horizon. 

Similarly, a girl and a large bear wondering through a meadow. The grey tones of the sky tell me that the day is nearing evening. 

Joe Cepeda

Book titles include The Swing, Nappy Hair, What a Truly Cool, Mice and Beans. 

Preferred painting method is oil and acrylic. Images are finished digitally in Photoshop, the same technique as Will Terry. 


I love the movement and energy in Joe Cepeda's work. I selected these two illustrations as you can see the wind, the elements are so fast that it makes you feel like you can actually see the wind - The leaves moving upwards, the umbrella being flattened under the pressure of the gale. Both characters showing movement. 

Grace Helmer 

Clients include Apple & Google. Work published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Octopus Books, Penguin. 

Grace Helmer travels and always packs oil paint for her trip, not a fan of sketchbooks, she goes straight in with colour. 

Similarly to Will terry, the beautiful thing about oils is that the colour is so striking. The white, pale skin of the female against the blue of the background and dark blue shadow beneath. 

The gorgeous house painted below a starry nights sky, a street lamp depicted a street. Homely and nurturing. 

Tom Root 
Paintings include, Flight, Announcement, Singing Lizard, Coronation and Market. 

Oil on board. 

Ruth Sanderson

Book titles include, The Secret Garden, Heidi, The Enchanted Wood, The Crystal Mountain, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty. 

Charles Pfahl 

Work includes paintings, Behind the Red Door, Bird Lady, Bird of Paradise, Afternoon, The Dolls. 

Oil on panel. "My grandmother studied painting. When I was 12, she sent me to her teacher in Akron, Ohio, and I was introduced to oil painting and it has been my preferred medium ever since". 

The work of Charles Pfahl is intense and emotional. His tones are dark and intense, yet how splendor and detail. 

My focused artist is Joe Capeda: 

"Oils and acrylic. I’m not real picky about the acrylics because I use them for under-painting mostly (and I really don’t like acrylics), but I am about oils". 

In this painting, the sky is blue, the same light blue throughout. If you focus in you and see the large brush marks and thick texture. The light of the torch is depicted by a lighter, brighter tone shining upwards highlighting the figure of the boy, this torch also symbolises that the day is losing light, it is evening. The sky is also full of movement, the most endearing aspect of Cepeda's work. 

The black crows are moving quickly in a downwards movement to take a seat next to the boy. The crows in the forefront of the painting a large, the further down the image your eyes are taken, they become smaller, I feel this adds layers to the illustration, it shows distance. The crows are lined up tentatively listening to the story. More and more of them are arriving. As the crows catch the torch light, a grey tone is used on their wings. 

The boy is young, youthful, engrossed in his book. Alone and peaceful. He is sat on a fence, a rural setting with space around him. I love the contrast of peace and stillness against the rapid movement of the birds. Fascinating. 

"Making a picture book is making a small movie. You need action scenes, as well as moments to introduce a character, close up shots, contemplative scenes, chase scenes, sad pictures.. etc. There’s some level of “action” in every image. Because a character is standing in the middle of an empty room, doesn’t mean there is no action there. Perhaps tilting the characters head to look over his shoulder offers a sense of fear, anxiety… tension. A clenched fists alludes to anger. There’s always action". Joe Cepeda on movement. 

In my own work, I found it very daunting to emulate a professional oil paint artist. So I broke things down and decided that I would like to set myself the task of adding movement. I took two ink drawings from my sketch book and used oil paints: 


This exercise asks that I render an illustration in a similar style. 

This is my old ink illustration of an umbrella sitting in a upside down in a puddle:

To concentrate on movement I made a charcoal sketch of the umbrella, and worked with big and dark strokes to give the impression of the umbrella moving in the wind. To highlight this movement, rather than have the umbrella sat straight as per the original, I have placed the umbrella at an angle to give the impression that it is being carried away in the wind. 

Oil: 
I worked with dull purples, cream and greys to try and give the impression of rain. A heavy sky above and water below. 

Reflection: 

This exercise actually asked me to render two illustrations, however I am struggling to find another that would be relevant to explore the movement aspect so crucial to Joe Capeda. I will return to this exercise a little later on, in the hope that I have another to work with. 

It has been fascinating to study Capeda's work. I find oil is such a heavy, think and difficult medium to work with, yet he manages to take control of it on every occasion. He is able to offer think and chunky elements as well as more refined detail, such a skill with such a heavy paint. 

My umbrella painting is not particularly good overall, however what is has done is offered me the chance to look at one of my illustrations again, adding movement. So often my work so far has been lacking in this, which I hadn't even realised until this point. Lesson learnt. 

Reference: 
An interview with Joe Cepeda by Kathy Temean 2011.