Three Spot Roosters

 After playing with several ink techniques we received our official assignment for the week. Make 3 "spot" designs of a rooster. What is a spot design you might ask? Well it is basically to create an illustration that may be inserted within an article with the possibility of having text wrap around it in a way. We were given guidelines- 3 separate spots able to fill an image size of 8"x6" on illustration board using black and white media only. They all had to be similar stylistically but with distinct different qualities.
 At first, I thought this would be a piece of cake! However I didn't realize how much more challenging it would be. I took to my sketchbook, grabbing my trusty ballpoint pen and doodling whatever roosters I could find using internet searches. I tried for realistic effects, cartoony, simplistic, and just about any other design in between. Before I knew it I had filled at least 4 pages of miniature drawings of various roosters. I just wasn't happy with any of them, I wanted to do my usual anthropomorphic cartoon style, but anatomically the roosters weren't coming out how I had imagined. I even decided to study some old cartoons like Looney Tunes (Forhorn Leghorn) and Rock A Doodle (Chanticleer) but still drew a blank how to interpret the designs into my own style.
 After a while, I finally stumbled on some ideas that worked for me and then the challenge became making them as similar as possible while still making them uniquely different. I settled for a unifying theme- using the image of a farmhouse somehow incorporated into the design of the rooster to unify all 3 images. I chose to use my Crowquill pen and ink method since I did have a bit of fun with the pens last semester and I love the effects I can get with various pen nibs and pressure. I loved how they turned out and had a bit of fun with the ink wash method to add value to the farm around (or in) the rooster. In the end I was very pleased with the results!

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