Last week I wrapped up a 30"x30" illustrated commission and I have step by step pictures of my process for your viewing pleasure.
For this large piece I purchased a nice thick slab of illustration board. Cut down about 10 inches to fit the specifications I had a 10"x30" piece left over. To get a feel for the texture of the board I did a test drawing on a 10 by 10 to help visualize the final image as well as see how the gouache reacted to the surface.
As you can see from this initial sketch I chose to forgo the socks, even though I do like long socks. I also shortened the hair to a style that I think fits better to the story in the image.
After perfecting the pencils to contours my many inner critics could agree on, I opened the inkwell and dipped a brand new brush to start the inking process. This piece is drawn with dark black india ink, so it has a nice sheen to it.
With the ink process complete, I now erase all the pencil lines, and clean up the surface in some places. The last treatment is the gouache.
As you can see I kept the colors to a minimum, mainly just to keep it easy on the eye, and to not steal the thunder of the line work. Look at that smoke!
And here we are in Instagram. Because the image colors are so light throwing a filter over it really changes the feel.
I love smoking hot chicks. Don't you?
