The Man in the Hat - Watercolor Illustration Series

AntonioBernal · #1 06-15-2012, 08:40 AM

Hi illustrator fellows,

I've been around WC for a couple of months, and have enjoyed the community a lot. However, I've usually found most of the comments and discussions to be focused towards a very painterly style, which is fair enough and I'm learning a lot from them, however I sometimes feel more illustrative styles don't get much recognition or interest in the forums, that's why I'm delighted to find this section, hoping to participate and enjoy from points of view closer to illustration.

After that bit of ranting (not really ranting, just thinking "out loud" I guess), I'd like to just present my artwork. Watercolor & Ink is my medium, and since 2011 I've been working on a series named The Man in the Hat (he's a fictional silent character who has become the "leit motiv" of the series).

Although my artwork has a big stress in narrative elements, there is no story as such, and the illustrations were conceived as standalone pieces.

This is an illustration that is already a few months old, Night Over Copacabana. The whole series can be seen in the links in my signature if you'd like to see more.

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Name: Copacabana Print.jpg
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Size: 153.4 KB

I'd love to hear any feedback, comments and critique about my artwork, and looking forward to being part of the Illustration community here.

Antonio

ibisbill · #2 06-15-2012, 11:38 AM

Hi, Antonio,

Very impressive! I think you have an enormous amount of artistic talent. And your website is one of the most attractive (and easiest to get around) that I have seen. Are you thinking of having "The Man in the Hat" published as a book?

Great work!

**birdhs** · #3 06-15-2012, 12:38 PM

I also was quite impressed with your website. Easy to navigate and very well thought out.

Your style is quite professional. I also often use ink + watercolor /gouache/thinned acrylics.

The pen&ink forum also has a lot of mixed media artists. They always enjoy other artists stopping by and say hello.

Looking forward to seeing more illustrators stopping by, this tends to be a very quiet forum,

Welcome

greg

AntonioBernal · #4 06-16-2012, 05:34 AM

Thank you, ibisbill and Greg, for the welcome and taking the time to comment and check my website.

I'm glad you like the artwork, and I do appreciate your feedback about the website! It took me some time and work to put it together, I tried to integrate the design of the website with the illustrations style, still making it functional and friendly to navigate around, glad you liked it.

I hadn't actually thought about publishing the Man in the Hat as a book...but other people have also mentioned that maybe I should...I don't think I'll be doing that in the short term though, but we'll see...! As I said there is no story as such, but there is some sort of theme, undefined plot, or just atmosphere, which certainly invites to story-telling.

For the time being, I find very playful the fact of keeping this dinamic, as each viewer can make up their own story, and you kind of start knowing the Man in the Hat and you develop his character and stories with the little information you are given from the Illustrations. But I can certainly see, in the future, I could make a selection of illlustrations, put them together, and write a story about them. It would be interesting as I would be writing the text for the illustrations, where most of times you do the illustrations for the text given...

Thanks again, I'll be sharing with you new illustrations I finish in the future to see what you all think of the way the series is developing.

Antonio

cyrene · #5 06-18-2012, 04:40 AM

I love the colors and the theme! The man in the hat sure leads a funky life it looks like!!!

Keep going...we'd like to see more of the story take off.

**birdhs** · #6 06-18-2012, 02:22 PM

Perhaps you could get together with your friends and a LARGE screen TV and have a party. Then as each of the paintings is displayed, you could all shout out what the story line is, sort of a charade game.

This could be fun with the right folks!

life is good

greg

AntonioBernal · #7 06-23-2012, 06:09 AM

Hey, thanks all for your comments. Funky is probably the best word I could think of to describe the man in the hat's lifestyle, cyrene!

Greg, that sounds like a great idea, I might try it out some time just to see what it comes out of it...!

I just finished a new illustration yesterday, went for a darker look, a bit out of my confort zone (most of my illustrations are very bright, with sunny scenes). It was a bit challenging dealing with all those dark colors, yet still keeping the composition interesting...

I'm kind of happy with the way the rain looks...I estimate a total of 1.273 brushstrokes for all those raindrops! :P

Name: Dangerous Bend.jpg
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Name: Dangerous Bend.jpg
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Let me know what you think.

Hope you all have a funky weekend.

Antonio

**birdhs** · #8 06-23-2012, 09:14 AM

Good job at portraying a night scene yet still "readable", always a challenge.

Feel free to start a new thread for each painting, often once someone looks at a thread they may miss later postings of new material.

Love your "look". Greg

JTGMTZ · #9 06-26-2012, 11:56 AM

Bravo! I visited your site as well and loved it. I feel like I am being an echo of the others, but you did great on the challenging task of doing night scenes especially for it being a very challenging medium to do that it, watercolor. I too am jumping in after a long period of quiet when it comes to posting. I think the illustration forum is a great place. :0)

ivo55 · #10 07-24-2012, 01:37 PM

Yes You have got it!
Drawing a night scenes isn't easy, however it is fun if you know what I mean. It does make you thinking for the relevant expression.

**alangraham** · #11 08-06-2012, 09:55 AM

Antonio, I love this! The Man in the Hat is awesome and would make a great book as someone said. Way to go. I enjoyed your site as well.

regards,
Cory

fred777 · #12 09-26-2012, 08:57 PM

I like the feel of the works, already i can feel a bit of flavour, and I'm wanting to know the story behind the man in the hat!

AntonioBernal · #13 10-04-2012, 10:07 AM

Thanks for taking a look, fred. Glad you liked them. It's funny a lot of people seems to wonder about the story behind the Man in the Hat, but there really isn't a story, at least no more story than the one that develops with every illustration, which are all thought as stand-alone pieces really...

If this ends up being a story...the story will have been created after the illustrations, and not the other way around...wouldn't that be unusual?

Best wishes,

Antonio

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