ILLUSTRATION PROCESS 2

After choosing a composition that I liked, I start to figure out the individual components, what the kids are gonna look like and how that big panda mech is going to work.

Below are some of the first sketches of the little girl on the terrace, I work in ball point pen so that I can see my iterations all on one page. For one it makes me feel like I draw a lot but more importantly, it allows me to see my options and combine shapes from different faces to come up with future possibilities. The ones with the stars are the ones I start to lean towards.

These sketches were primarily for the kid sitting on the panda arm. I was trying to go with someone feeling tough without making him look like a little person. This was a hard one but again doing all these iterations helped me find the right fit for my illustration.

After doing all those studies I work it out in graphite, since I have a vocabulary of shapes in my head from the previous studies I was able to knock these out pretty fast. This phase I use graphite to really start to nail some of the shapes a little more.

Once I have the major components I Photoshop them into my thumbnail as a final comp and layout below.

I print this out on my home printer which prints at a standard 8.5 x 11 inches. I take the print out to Kinkos and blow it up to about 145% of the original. I still use a light box because I still love to draw and figure things out. As I was drawing though I hit a roadblock with the panda mech so had to stop and figure it out with a few more sketches.

Below are the panda mech sketches were I was exploring the face and joints.




After doing those sketches I felt better about that design aspect so I pushed forward with the line art and was able to finish it faster. Here's the thing about drawing fast, its not about physically moving your pencil or pen faster, it is about making better design decisions. Those sketches helped me make decisive decisions about the mech which in turn allowed me to visualize the final product below.

Next up the start of the color process.