The Making of a Fool

I’m working on a sample piece for April Fools and thought I would post my process for creating a character. This is all being done in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

If I don’t have a strong image idea in my head, I usually start by doing some research on Google, in this case searching for images of jesters and fools. The first sketch or two is often just copying an image just to get warmed up, then moving on to my own ideas based on what I find. On this first page I concentrated on heads and the jester hat.

 

The left image below was based on a piece by a favorite artist because I liked the active position. His illustration was a monster that I reworked into a very distorted human. The sketch on the right was my own creation trying to get a similar active feel but with my own design. At this stage I was also working on the clothing.

Next I decided to start working on a different pose. I did a little image research on “silly dance” and “stupid dance” to spark ideas. Still not sure which one I’ll run with.

After filling up that page with ideas, I went back to my “bouncy fool” and messed around with different noses and mouths.

At this point I need to set this aside and work on client projects, so I will probably look at it all again tomorrow with a fresh mind that will spark some new ideas.

Digital Cartoon Robot

I’m working on a new project creating robot spot illustrations for a series of computer programming books for kids and teenagers. This is my first paid client job that I am creating entirely digitally. Pencils and inking brush are from the Frenden Photoshop tool set.

 

This is one of the initial robot designs. I began by sketching about 50 ideas very roughly in blue pencil – the image on the left is from that initial set. I find this process very relaxing and fun, just letting my mind go crazy coming up with silly ideas. Most are pretty awful but you get a few good ones. Working on the tablet is actually very fluid. I liked the shape of the body and head but decided to get rid of the cranial peripherals in the tight pencil sketch on the right.

Working on a final piece starts with a rough blue line sketch.

Tight pencil sketch for client approval.

Final inks. This is the hardest part of the process as I am rather picky about the quality of the line. I do most of the inking with a digital brush because I like the thick and thin qualities and I don’t want the image to look like it was created on a computer. I want a tight, clean image, but I also want a hand-drawn feel. Unlike working on paper, on the computer I can zoom in on detail sections which can make me a little nuts when I see all the little imperfections. I got frustrated on my first robot drawing and decided to try it on paper with brush and ink. I scanned it and compared it to the digital version and realized the one done on paper was actually rougher than the digital version.

Final colored image. At first I tried coloring the original digital file but found that dropping colors in with the bucket left an anti-aliased halo. Coloring on a layer beneath was overly time-consuming. I decided to convert the ink layer to a 600 dpi bitmap, then reconvert to RGB. This leaves a sharp, pixelled edge around everything which allows for dropping in color with no halo. Once the image is shrunk down for print the pixel edge all but disappears.

Bronco Bustin’ Creation Process

This illustration is the first piece I’ve ever created start to finish on the computer so I thought I would post some images of the stages with some notes about what I did. The piece was created using Photoshop CC and an old Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

 

I started with a rough blue line sketch using the Pencil: Blue from the Frenden brush set. Surprisingly, I found working on the tablet to be much more comfortable and fluid than working on paper.

Next was the tight pencil sketch working over the blue line sketch. I used the Frenden Pencil: Sketch Soft which was comfortable to work with but I’m not entirely happy with the roughness of the line. I’ll try to tweak it on future uses to be more like the soft lead 0.5mm Pentel mechanical pencils I’m used to. On the upside, I again found the pencilling to be easier and more relaxing than working on paper.

The painting. This is the toughest part for me right now as I’m trying to figure out how to get a more “painterly” and 3-dimensional look. Besides continued frustration at not being able to get the “perfect” brush tip settings I want, I’m also finding it difficult to visualize the steps needed to achieve the final image I’m seeing in my mind. I’m hoping this will get better with practice. The layers were:

1. The neutral background color

2. The dark painting layer

3. The tight sketch layer set to 50% opacity and Multiply

4. The highlights and detail layer

A couple of things to note: 1. I’m painting on a neutral colored background rather than white (a suggestion I picked up from another illustrator’s blog) and 2. at this stage I haven’t done the final cleanup around the edges of the figures.