Getting the drawing right

Getting the drawing just right is, for me, the hardest part of an illustration. I think other illustrators will tell you the same thing. I agonize over the smallest details. 

 Here is where I am with this piece now, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Please click on this to see it larger.

It started with these little character sketches (which I showed in my last post). They're all done separately, and at different sizes, on plain printer paper.

Then, thanks to the magic of Photoshop, I pieced them all together into one picture, and was able to re-size and move around individual pieces using the Edit/ Free Transform commands. At this stage, each character is on a separate layer, so I can cut and paste, and do whatever to each one without affecting the others. Here I just want to place them in a basic composition. (I've also added in the young girl and baby.)

Then I start fiddling with them. I use my Wacom tablet and pen to draw on top of my rough sketch and start firming things up. Lots of work gets done here. Lots. 

Then I re-scan and get away from it for a while, and look at it fresh. There are always things that are way off that I don't notice at first. For example, I tend to draw heads big. I don't know why. Maybe I lived on Easter Island in a past life. So I corrected those a bit. I also made lots of adjustments to things like all the legs and feet, and all the places where a lot of small bits intersect, so I can avoid bad tangents.

Here are some potential trouble spots ~

So I make sure lines overlap in a nice way, rather than flowing right into each other. They become abstract shapes at this point, so I'm also looking to make interesting asymmetrical shapes, rather than having sides line up equally all over (if that makes sense).

I will probably do one more tighter drawing, making minor adjustments, then move on to doing a value and color rough. One thing I already know I will have to work out are all the 'whites' - caps, aprons, and the back wall - to make sure they are all balanced. So that's next.

I love that little baby, and his grabby hand. 

Character sketches

These are sketches for the illustration I'm currently working on.

Humble beginnings.

I love developing characters, and getting their details just right.

Can you guess what time period this is set in?

I'm having fun with this one.

Answer just what your heart prompts you

"ta-da!" (as the waitress at the coffee shop I go to always says when she brings the food)

Usually I do things with a white background.
I guess I felt I had something to prove.

This is 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm), Prismacolors and Polychromos on Stonehenge paper.

Background finished

Phew. What made me decide to do this, I can't remember.

This is about 4,000 layers of Polychromos and Prismacolors.

Its a Chinese floral design. The original reference is darker and more "contrast-y", but I muted it some so it would 'stay back'.

This is what it looked like before I added the dark. Its pretty, but spotty. It needed the dark to tie it all together, to make a unified background that won't fight with the main subject matter.

Now its onto the stars of the show.

Update: about 2 minutes after posting this I decided it needed more color after all, so am adding another layer. So make that 4,001 layers.

Update to the update:

Here is layer 4,001. Prismacolor Peacock Blue. I think that does the trick.

New work in progress

There's not much to show yet, but I thought I'd share my newest piece, in progress.

There's a lot of detail in the background. I'm having fun with it, and will be glad when it starts to really look like something.

Those first layers require so much patience. Mapping out the pattern, applying the first colors, not rushing, not getting ahead of yourself.

I'm doing this with Polychromos on Stonehenge paper.

With this one I debated about just going from left to right, finishing each area completely as I went, or doing it this way - "all over", and one color at a time. On pieces with a lot of colors, like this, where I will be coming back to it in several sittings, I find its better to spread out the application of pencil over the whole piece, rather than do one corner, then come back later and do another patch. That's exactly what happens - it can start to look 'patchy'. Without realizing it, you make subtle changes in how you apply the color sometimes - if you're tired, or whatever. For me at least, spreading what I do in each sitting out over the whole piece makes for a more consistent finish. (I hope that made sense.)

How you do work on a large piece? From one corner to the other, completing it as you go, or spread out around the whole thing like I am on this one?