Here's a step by step look at an illustration I'm working on. The top is a very rough thumbnail; I usually do quite a few of these. Most end up in the trash can. Once I find something that feels like it's coming together, I'll work up a slightly tighter sketch. At this point I start using tracing paper to work out elements/combine aspects from different sketches. Basically at this stage it's lather, rinse, repeat 'till things start to come into focus. Working on tracing paper is nice too because it allows me to flip the image to see any idiosyncrasies. I find a lot of times my brain knows something is off, but can't pinpoint it until hitting this stage.
The middle drawing is right after being transferred to board. I then make sure there's no wobbling coffee cups/jumping cats/or sizable activity on the Richter scale before going any further (to avoid future unpleasantries). I use watercolors and occasionally colored pencils as far as traditional media goes. I've been experimenting with gouache lately and am really liking it for giving me vibrant colors.
The third drawing is where I've brought the piece into Photoshop and I'm messing with some of the colors and trying to pump up the intensity a bit. A lot of what I do color-wise is done digitally from start to finish (particularlly if there's a quick turnaround), but I'm trying to split the difference a little more between digital/traditional lately.
So that's that. Number three has a very long ways to go, so I'll post some of that when I'm finished.
5 comments:
thank you so much for this glimpse into your process! to those of us without any talent at all for drawing it often seems that wonderful works like yours just spring into being from a brilliant creative mind-- it is so interesting to see that even the most creative mind does go through multiple iterations and versions (and of course I love the drawing itself)
This is great! So nice and inspiring to see the process! Thank you!! : )
This is great. I love seeing the progression of this illustration.
thanks for sharing! i always love the colors you use so much and on this one i'm particularly fond of the girl' hair. :)
Di
Great to see this. I use tracing paper too. I found I really responded to this : " I find a lot of times my brain knows something is off, but can't pinpoint it until hitting this stage. " I think I've given up on some really good pictures because I didn't have the patience to see it through to that stage where it all starts to make sense. Thanks for posting this, it's really inspiring.
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