Camilla D'errico

In early December I bought an art book by one of my favourite artists, Camilla d'Errico. The book is titled 'Helmet Girls'. Around this time I was coming towards the end of the Constructive Visualization project, the timing of buying this art book was perfect as it helped to inform the line work in the project's final pieces. When looking through the art book I found that I really loved d'Errico's quality of line, and decided to study this so I could implement it into my own work. Her drawings are quite simple; but the varying line thickness really adds to the tone of the pieces so they have a 3D quality, which really brings the characters to life. It also makes the drawings more interesting to look at, and helps to emphasize certain parts (for example the helmets). Her use of a softer line on the hair gives it texture and makes it feel more like hair to look at than if all the lines were the same thickness. Overall varying the quality of line makes the line drawings look more like finished, professional pieces than just lines waiting to be coloured in.

 Something I also took from Camilla d'Errico's work is how she creates varying tone without using heavy shading. An example of this can be found on the helmet in the above drawing. Along the bottom of the drawing there is faint cross hatching. This adds subtle tone without distracting from the rest of the drawing, it doesn't stand out more than the lines. I want to take inspiration from this in my own work because I love using cross hatching as a way of shading line work. I often find that it can make my drawings look unprofessional because the cross hatching is as bold as the lines, and the lines of the cross hatching are often wobbly an not uniform because I do it by hand. If I was to take inspiration from D'errico's cross hatching and create finer cross hatching that is less uniform I think it would add tone to the piece that makes it look more 3D, whereas my technique still makes the drawing look quite flat.

 Another technique I want to use as inspiration from d'Errico's work is the way she shades different fabrics, such as fur. Just like the cross hatching the shading is very faint, so you barely notice it. This makes the fur feel much more like the actual texture of that material when looking at it, and makes it clear that it is a different texture to the rest of the drawing. I tried to imitate this technique in my own work when drawing the bluejay on top of the gravestone, and I really think it improved the texture and shading of the drawing. I also put little gaps in the line work, just like d'Errico does, and I think this made my drawing look more delicate and professional.