Ale Mercado Website » Workshop

Alé Mercado in Ballyfermot College

Alé Mercado — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:40:30 +0000

Alé Mercado in Ballyfermot, originally uploaded by Alé Mercado.

I’ve been kindly invited to give a talk on my experience as an illustrator in Ballyfermot College next Tuesday 16th March. I was asked to send an image to promote it but I really wanted to create something new… So that is what you are looking at. I hope you like it

Screenprints for THE MARKET

Alé Mercado — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:45:27 +0000

THE MARKET is happening this Saturday 5th December 2009 in the Arts Office Kilkenny County Council. The idea is to offer people affordable art from some really exciting artists. It is a good alternative to the typical market this time of the year as I don’t think you’ll be able to get anything christmassy at all. But rest assured, everything you can get there is going to be really special.

I was honoured to be asked to take part on it. When you come along you will be able to purchase special very limited series of screenprints (like the one in the picture) or some original drawings at really low prices

Some of the prints will be available to buy from this website after THE MARKET is finished so don’t be too sad if you cannot make it.

Step-by-Step

Alé Mercado — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:55:46 +0000

Now that the Rhyme Rag is with the printers, I am going to show you through the process of creating one of the images.

At first I would scribble lots of ideas on paper, a bit like doing a brainstorming. Once I am happy with some of them, I start developing some aspects of them… As the image grows clearer in my head, I am ready to start drawing.

That’s when I start, very loosely, working of the composition of the image, making sure all the elements of the final illustration are there.

When I am happy with it, I use a tracing paper to draw over it and start adding detail. In most of the cases, all the detail of the illustration is here. I try to make sure that values are also explain at this stage.

Once the pencils on the tracing paper are finished it’s time to start inking. This time I used both a brush and a dip pen.

The ink drawing is finished. It only contain the outlines of the shapes which will be filled with the relevant colour in the next stages.

It is time to scan the drawing now. I load it into a channel and invert it. That way I can easily use it as a stencil.

Inmediately afterwards I start painting each one of the two colour plates directly in photoshop. That way I add the tone I had plan and create the space between foreground and background. This is the red plate…

..and this is the blue plate.

I mix the colours in my head as I paint… with a lot of help from photoshop were you can be previewing the changes to the comosite file as you go along.

And this is the way they will look once the image is printed

Hope you enjoyed it.

Illustrating Illustration Workshop

Alé Mercado — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:04:00 +0000

Last Saturday 19th July I did a workshop/talk as a complement to the Illustrating Illustration exhibition. I showed a few projects from beginning to end. The idea was to emphasize the principles of the exhibition and to give an insight into how projects are approached.

The event was promoted though the Artlinks! network and the Arts Office in the Kilkenny County Council. It was directed to professionals in any visual communication area. We also wanted a reduced number of attendants so we could go in depth into any of the issues that might arise. Two days before all seats had been taken.

Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop which I hope was of interest (I would say so looking at the feedback we’ve had). Especially all who travelled specifically for the event from Wexford, Enniscorthy, Dublin and Cork… and, of course, thanks to the locals who also were there.