Sneak Peek
Posted by trev | Filed under Moleskine, Preliminary Drawings, Sketchbook
I just can’t seem to get back in the update flow. Work’s been overwhelming lately and I haven’t been making good use of my down time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back in the groove. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak at an illustration that I did that will be appearing next week. The final was done digitally, but this rough of one of the elements was done in pencil and my trusty pentel brush pen.
More Director Roughs
Posted by trev | Filed under Moleskine, Preliminary Drawings, Sketchbook
Thanks to the day job and the holidays, I’m a bit behind in my updates. As promised earlier, here are some early roughs for the indie director illustration I posted a couple of weeks ago.
I had a bit more time than usual with this one, so I got to play a bit more than I usually do.
The variations in a lot of these are pretty subtle, but the devil is in the details. I had a pretty good idea early what I wanted to do, but it took some noodling to get everyrthing hammered out.
Director Rough
Posted by trev | Filed under Moleskine, Preliminary Drawings, Sketchbook
Here is the rough drawing for the finished indie filmmaker illustration I posted earlier. I have some early variations that I will posted later, since I will limited access to my scanner this week.
Rough Cowboys
Posted by trev | Filed under Moleskine, Preliminary Drawings, Sketchbook
Here are some rough development doodles for the two cowboy illustrations I posted last week (here and here). Early in the process, I was toying with the idea of doing something with a line dancing motif, but I just couldn’t find a composition that I liked. I do like the energy in the cowboy in the upper left hand corner, tho’. Perhaps, I should have explored it further.
Jam Roughs
Posted by trev | Filed under Preliminary Drawings, SketchbookI had intended to post the roughs to my last entry a lot sooner, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Better late than never. Here are a couple of thumbails of my comic jam contribution.
…Like a Bowl Full of Jelly
Posted by trev | Filed under Preliminary DrawingsI finished my annual Christmas card for friends and relatives late last week — a bit later than usual. I think it took longer because I couldn’t settle on a concept. I knew I wanted to feature Santa in some way, but I was not sure how.
Santa is really fun to draw. He is such an iconic character, but at the same time he is open to many different visual interpretations. While I like drawing the character, I still haven’t felt like I have been able to come up with an orginal take on the character.
My card last year also featured Mr. Claus, and while I was happy with the results at the time, I thought I could do better. I am not sure if I was able to accomplish that, but it was fun trying.
Here are some Santa development sketches that I did while working on the card.
Thinking Ain’t Pretty
Posted by trev | Filed under Preliminary Drawings, Sketchbook
I don’t know why, but the page of scribbles above amuses me to no end. It’s one of my warmup pages for the finished illustration in my last post. I usually go through at least of dozen or so pages like this one before I decide upon the direction I want to take for the finished product. These pages are usually done is a whirlwind of scribbling. I try not to slow down too much to think. That usually just gets in my way. This isn’t about refinement, it’s about trying to let my creativity run wild.
At the time, these scribbles made perfect sense to me. Looking back, it just looks like a big ol’ mess. But that’s not important. This is all about the exploration of an idea, which is really the most fun part of the whole process. The actual drawing part always ends up disappointing to some degree, even in the most successful of drawings. The end product never lives up to that glorious moment of conception. It’s the best buzz in the world.
Rough wishes
Posted by trev | Filed under Preliminary Drawings, SketchbookA brief followup to my previous post. Here are some of the rough sketches for that illustration.
The Case of the Flapless Flapper
Posted by trev | Filed under Illustration, Preliminary Drawings, SketchbookA few months ago, I had to do a small illustration for this newsletter that I was laying out at work. The story was a “Roaring 20s” themed shindig. The client wanted a “Great Gatsby” type illustration. They pointed me to John Held Jr’s famous Life cover which popularized the flapper look.
I was excited about the illustration for a number of reasons. I have always been fond of the Jazz Age, and that fondness had been reignited from pouring over all of the great art from Jazz age artists posted on Cartoon Retro. Plus, I don’t really get to illustrate a lot of things at work for one reason or another so I am always excited to get the chance to work on something.
Enthusiasm aside, the illustration offered some challenges. First, it needed to be turned around rather quickly. It wasn’t an unreasonable amount of time, but it left little time for exploring numerous ways to attack the concept. Second was the dimensions. The space left for the illustration was a bit odd — very tall and narrow.
At first I thought the dimensions would work in my favor. I thought the tall and narrow composition could echo the art deco look of the period. However, as I started working on some rough sketches, I realized that the composition was going to be tricky.
Taking my cue from the Held drawing, I wanted to have a man (a Great Gatsby type) and a woman (flapper) in the midsts of a feverish Charleston. Like the Held drawing, I wanted the figures to have a lot of energy with their limbs contorted in some cartoony fashion. Here’s a rough sketch of a early exploration pose for my flapper.
The problem was how to fit the two in such a narrow composition. I played around with some combinations, and finally found a rough that had the feel I was looking for.
Unfortunately, the composition in the rough wasn’t the same dimensions as the ones I needed. The completed illustration had to be much narrower. None of my roughs were working, so I decided to do roughs of each figure separately and then compose them, the way I wanted when I got into Illustrator. Here’s a rough of my Gatsby stand-in.
The women proved tougher. I couldn’t figure out how to crop her so she still suggested a lot of feverish motion — and at the same time still leave some room for Gatsby. With time running out, I had to finish it up as best as I could.
I think it turned out okay, and the client was very happy with it. Looking back, I wish I had some more time to work it a little more. I think my flapper is still a litttle more stiff than I would’ve liked. When you are on the clock you don’t have the luxury of endlessly working something. You just do the best you can and use what you learn from the next drawing.
Instant Coffee
Posted by trev | Filed under Preliminary Drawings, SketchbookIt takes piles and piles of sketches and doodles to finish an illustration. In a perfect world, I like to have as much time as possible to work an idea in as many different directions as possible. Usually, it starts with a mess of doodles. Kinda like something this:
Then I start to nail it down a little more closely. I’ve been finishing my illustrations in Illustrator lately. I like the control I can get and the ability to mess around with the various elements of a drawing at will. I usually bring a rough sketch that I like into Illustrator to use as the basis for the drawing.
You’ll notice that, while similar, there are many things different from the sketch above and the finished illustration I posted yesterday. Since, Illustrator is so flexible, I rarely worry about getting the perfect sketch, I am just looking for something that is close enough to serve as a good foundation. When I start working in Illustrator, I can fix any problems and play around with some alternatives.
