First look: Book Illustration
on January 3, 2011 at 6:45 pmPosted In: News, Webcomic and Novel Previews
Here it is. The first sample illustration for the novel:
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Making some progress on one of the sample illustrations for the novel pitch. The first image is the start of the flatting process. Each element gets painted in with its own solid color. For this drawing I’m working in three sections: foreground, middle ground and the background. By keeping the elements separate, it’ll make it a lot easier later on to establish depth and get the tonal range right.
In the illustration below, I’ve finished the flatting and have started working on the lighting and textures. And you can see where I started adding some fog in the middle ground. That’s when having the elements on separate layers makes things easy.
Hopefully the next installment will have the finished piece.
As you can see, this is not a continuation of the previous post on my illustration process.
This one is titled “The Gate” (you can see the inks for this in the main post at the top of the page). I’ve scanned the final drawing in and have started the painting process. I would love to color these by hand with just ink washes, but I don’t have the setup to scan in final product. So I’m recreating the same technique in Photoshop.
At this stage, I’m laying in my greys and only focusing on getting the tones right. Then I’ll build up the shadows and lights with light washes until I’m reasonably satisfied.
The edges are sloppy for now, as I’m creating a custom border for all the illustrations. Needless to say that’ll go on last.
Continuing off the sketches I posted last time, here are the pencils for the actual drawing:
And a little closer up:
As you can see I’m keeping the pencils almost as loose as a seagull. An that’s hard for me. For years, I worked for hours creating spandex tight pencils before whipping out the ink. My main focus is on the composition and the lighting. And those are two things I’ve always slacked on in the past.
And if I’m being perfectly honest, if the novel sells, I’ll probably re-do the sample illustrations. Just like in writing, re-drawing what you think is a ready to go layout usually brings about better results.
One last pic. Here’s the beginning of the inking process. I’ll have more details and pics on that in the next post:
Also, in the coming posts, I’ll write a bit more about the tools I’m using on this project.
I’m creating three or four sample illustrations to go along with the sample chapters from the novel. Thought I’d share the process from doodles to completed drawing.
This first one is popped out of chapter two: the arrival of eleven strangers to the mansion, focusing on man in particular. Choosing what to illustrate is the same as rewriting a chapter. You have to whittle it down to what’s important, or more importantly, what moves the story forward.
If you look in the top right corner of the page below you can see a thumbnail idea for the final drawing layout. The rest is just playing around with details until something sticks.
Here’s another page showing more of the main focus of the illustration. I’ve decided to go with more of a worms perspective, so the straight on guy in front of car is out. Although I think the sketch of the character is on track.
Also wanted to mention a charity cookbook project. I contributed a cartoon featuring Doug and Sophie. You can click on the link below to learn more and hopefully donate:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tr1studios/webcomics-whats-cooking
