Albert Uderzo

I find the style of Albert Uderzo (co-author and the illustrator for the Asterix and Obelix stories) to suit the target audience (children) exceptionally well. The roundness of the lines and the bright colours are attractive and friendly and the expressive natures of the characters vastly entertaining and key to each of their personalities. There is also a sort of caricature-like appearance to the designs which is possibly due to the exaggerated features (the most obvious ones being the nose, hands and feet) but the style is believable because Uderzo has taken the anatomy and rules of the real world and applied it as a structure beneath the wondrous expressions of his characters. The most obvious sign of this is in his backgrounds and buildings which are the most “realistic” in appearance. I say realistic in quotation marks as it still seems to fit within the world he’s created.

I experimented with a couple of different characters from some of his books in an effort to mimic and better understand his style. The first 2 drawings I did (top of the page) were done with a usual pencil however the rest were done with a mechanical pencil which I found to be much better in terms of detail and accuracy, it also allowed me to put in many more sketch lines (What I usually do when sketching is to use multiple lines instead of the bare minimum) without losing the shape of the drawing

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Looking at the lines and subtle marks in colouring, I figured that Uderzo might’ve used brush and ink to create the lines, and watercolour to colour, though not thick watercolour paper because there was no sign of texture.

I chose the drawings I thought were most effective and inked them with a brush and Windsor and Newton black Indian ink. I then after I was sure they had dried properly, I coloured the lines with watercolour (the type you get from a tube, not a block) and made sure to test the colours I made before applying it to the image. It was then that I discovered to my dismay that the water activated the ink again and made it runny, bleeding into some of colour and de-saturating it. I tried to avoid contact with the lines after this discovery, wanting to finish what I started, and was able to create some outcomes that I’m very proud of. In order to make the white horse appear white, I put a light shade of yellow around the outside of the horse to have something for the eyes to compare with.

Later whilst mark making with Indian Ink, I remembered that I had a bottle of Windsor and Newton Black Calligraphy ink as well, and also experimented with it. As I wrote in my sketchbook, I found that the Indian ink is much more versatile in the amount of marks and textures you can get with it, however Calligraphy ink is much more smooth and easier to create clean brushstrokes.

I first tested that the Calligraphy ink would not reactivate with water before taking another one of my other sketches and inking it, this time with Calligraphy ink. When colouring it, I found that the ink didn’t bleed and came up with a slightly brighter, cleaner image than the other two (horse and red-haired man (Anticlimax) were drawn with a mechanical pencil then inked with Indian Ink. The little blond haired fellow (Asterix) was drawn with a normal HB pencil and inked with Calligraphy Ink.).

The most important things I learnt in terms of materials were:

- Mechanical pencils are more accurate than normal pencils and are forever sharp.

- Watercolour is best used from tube rather than blocks so that you can mix them better.

-         - White ink can be very useful for hiding accidents ( I had a few over the line colouring accidents, I think I was trying to go a little too fast. I used white calligraphy ink to colour in the eyes. To hide some watercolour hiccups, I had to add 1 or 2 layers of water colour ink. Use a very thin brush and a little at a time.)

- USE CALLIGRAPHY INK for lines, NOT INDIAN INK.

 

(The books I copied the drawings from were Asterix the Gladiator (top two, Cacophonix and the lioness) and Asterix in Britain (the rest). The Asterix picture can be found near the beginning of every Asterix and Obelix book.)