Sep 15, 2008

The Process

I thought I'd be a bit more descriptive with my work other than just Illustration Friday posts. :P It's been awhile since I've really gotten into detail. Tho, the Fairy Blessings are doing great, having so much fun with those.

Buuuuut why not give more insight. So, in the past I've had a lot of people ask me to do tutorials n' such. Well, this isn't a tutorial, but some inside on how I go about doing a painting. Some have seen me post something similar to this in the past, but I'm very excited about this project and thought I'd share. :)

So here's the line up...

The thumbnail: Usually, I'll sketch a few little thumbnails to get a feel for the composition. Normally I do this when I have many different elements and want to try something other than what's in my head (which in this case was very cliché).



The final sketch: After I get an okay on the thumbnail I'll go in and start to draw the final sketch on tracing paper. Now, the actual sketch is in reverse (flipped here for the client). I do this so that I can place the graphite/pencil down on the watercolor paper and transfer the image. All details come in this sketch.



The color study: Sometimes I'll do a color study. In this case it's at night with a large moon and lightening bugs so I wanted to be sure the color scheme would still allow you to see the prince and toad although they are in shadow. I do this in photoshop, a lot faster than with colored pencil or marker, in my opinion.



The inked sketch ready for paint: I ink my drawings before I paint. I used to clean up the pencil and paint, but got very tired spending all of that time cleaning up graphite and being able to always see my lines. I also used to outline everything in black, but have found that sepia or brown to be a great neutral color that actually adds to the work.



The final painting:


Hope you enjoyed the layout. God bless!

3 comments:

Dawn Obrecht said...

I LOVE to see how others work. I skip so many of your steps. :P But I do most of my inking in sepia too, unless I KNOW a part's going to be black or really dark.

Anonymous said...

I love walkthroughs to see how others do their work. :) Thanks for sharing!

Meredith said...

can't wait to see this!