- Illustrator: Suzanne Del Rizzo
- Illustration: Snow Angel
I work primarily with plasticine, and sometimes polymer clay to create low to high relief dimensional illustrations. I love the challenge of realistically rendering different details and textures in plasticine. The following illustration is a textural study I recently completed to use in my portfolio and for a promo mailer, which was inspired by Illustration Friday’s theme, “sweater”.
I begin each project by taking photographs to use as a reference, or by looking at other reference materials (books, photos, online) to get familiar with my subject.
For this illustration I also referred to a tutorial by Claire Wallis as a jumping off point to develop my method for creating the plasticine knitting. Next, I sketch a bunch of thumbnails to work out my composition. Once I am happy with my composition, I do a larger sketch the actual size of my illustration from which I will work.
Once my sketch is complete I choose my colour palette.
I mix rather large amounts of each colour that I will require so that I won’t hopefully need to worry about re-mixing and colour matching if I run out of a colour part way into the illustration. But, just in case, I make a mixing chart as well to have as reference if I do need to remix my colours.
Next, I start with the background. I smear and press the plasticine right onto firm illustration board. In this instance the background is a single colour as it will be the snow. I have worked the plasticine with various tools (and my fingers) to create the snow angle pattern built up in the snow. Often my backgrounds are very detailed. I would press, smear and build up details in the various colours thereby building from the background forward, adding more details as I gradually move to the foreground.
I work on top of plastic so that the plasticine doesn’t stick, as it is very malleable especially when worked with warm hands or pushed through an extruder. For the sweater I started by created variegated thread with my chosen colours by pushing bits of the plasticine through an extruder. This process is repeated many times to create lots of plasticine “wool”.
I then took one piece of extruded plasticine at a time and wove it back and forth on itself in a tightly packed s-pattern. Then I added another piece horizontally across the top, which was given indentations using a sculpting tool to give the illusion of knitting. Next, I flattened the bottom of the loops to decrease bulk . After repeating this process many times, I then lay each unit slightly below the next to create the below knit pattern.
I also braided the plasticine wool in various strands to create the cable knit. I then cut out my arm pieces and chest pieces to the desired size. Once these pieces are gently pressed together to create the sweater, the cable knit strands are added on top and pressed down.
Next comes the fun part! I love when the individual elements of a character in an illustration are finally brought together and pressed onto the illustration then tweeked and worked to add more dimension. In this case the sweater is gently folded and adjusted , while checking back with my many reference photos, to get the sweater folds just right.
I always work on body parts separately to ensure nothing gets squished inadvertently. Faces, in particular, are by far the most challenging and time consuming. I first create the shape of the face then gradually add up volume for the cheeks, eyelids etc. Then I add the facial features and tweek as required.
Sometimes it can be quite fiddly (and frustrating) if the face ends up being a touch out of proportion to my sketch. I usually end up with a pile of rejected faces that can look a little bit creepy.
I wanted to show the various types of knitting stitches, so I created her knit hat with twisted pink extruded plasticine, that would later be roughed up with a toothbrush to give it a more worn and put-thru-the-wash appearance.
The hat, hair (made from a finer dark brown extruded plasticine) and face are then assembled.
Mittens are made and textured with my trusty old toothbrush tool. I have lots of home-made tools that I use to create my textures like safety pins, kitchen implements, kid’s playdough tools,etc.
Then, once all the individual pieces are completed, I can assemble the illustration and press them firmly, without squishing anything, onto the plasticine background.
The elements are fine tuned to maintain proper proportions and more texture and detail is added.
I then gently rub white plasticine in all the areas that would pick up snow, and add some little snow mounds and snow balls to give it more dimension and realism.
Once I am happy with the illustration, I photograph it using a timer and tripod to ensure I get the most detailed image possible. I then bring it up in Photoshop to make any adjustments to brightness, saturation etc. and save it in the required file formats.
About the Illustrator
Suzanne Del Rizzo is a plasticine dimensional illustrator from Oakville, Ontario, Canada. She’s followed an unconventional path to find her true passion. She holds a science degree and originally worked in a Molecular Biochemistry lab before having her 4 children, who inspired her to follow her dream of becoming an illustrator in the Children’s market.
She has traded in her white lab coat for plasticine and sculpting tools, and has never been happier. She loves the challenge of rendering texture and detail in such a malleable medium as plasticine and polymer clay.
You can see more of Suzanne’s work on her website and her blog or connect with her on twitter or Facebook