The Radio Magician

Traditional Meets Digital

In today’s world, even for those illustrators who for the most part employ traditional methods, painting and drawing on paper, canvas or board, most have incorporated the digital world into their workflow, somehow. From simply being able to create a digital file of the finished work, to doing post production adjustments with image editing software, to wholly creating their images via digital tools, and varying states in-between.

Ultimately, from the pencil to the computer, these are merely the tools available to artists. What matters is the skill with which they are employed, and the success or failure of the final piece.

For myself, my migration to incorporating the digital world into my illustrative work was a natural one, simply a byproduct of the evolution and dominance of digital photography over film, and my move from the chemical darkroom into the digital one, as illustrated in my previous posts. Ironically it was in the midst of this digital revolution that I began to slide back into using more traditional methods, pencil drawing to be precise, but combine them with digital methods.

The project, The Radio Magician and Other Stories, was a wonderful collection of short stories by James Van Pelt (see previous entry). The title story takes place during the golden age of radio. It is about a boy battling polio, who makes an agonizing solitary journey under his own steam to a radio studio in the city in which he lives to “watch” his favorite radio show. It is a transformative story about magic and the power of the human spirit.

For the cover I wanted to create an image that honored that awe and magic so poignantly expressed in the story. I chose a moment near the end of the story, where the boy with polio visits another boy, far worse off with the same disease,  who is contained within an iron lung in a hospital room. He performs a magic trick for the captive boy, not to raise his spirits, but to inspire him to fight for his life.

After doing some preliminary sketches, below you see the original pencil drawing that served as a framework for the final image.

I researched polio and iron lungs, including their invention and evolution, studied dozens of photographs, then tried to create my own that I felt matched the correct era for the story. An iron lung does what it sounds like it does, through compression and decompression within the large chamber it breathes for the occupant. The occupant who remains prostrate on his/her back views their world through a mirror tipped at an angle above their head.

Through the mirror I could show the face of the occupant, below is the separate drawing that I did for that face that was scanned and inserted separately into the drawing. 

Then in Photoshop I began applying layers of transparent color, much like in a watercolor painting. Below is an early state.

From there I continued to add texture and layers of semi-transparent color to strike the mood. Note the red stage curtains that frame the picture. I wanted the image though it took place in a hospital room, to have a theatrical feel, which was consistent with the magical realism of the story.

Finally I added the text layers and chose a font that had an old fashioned marquee-like feel. I then shot some rays of light through the lettering to complete the image.

I really love this image, just like I loved the story that inspired it. There is some really beautiful detail and color here. Some close up examples below.

 

Later I employed and explored these same methods in the Annathena pictures.