Process of a Recent Commission

I recently finished a series of illustrations on a private commission for one of my clients and would love to share my process of making them with you. This is a pretty standard way I work, especially for this particular client's projects. These illustrations depict scenes from an original story my client wrote and we worked together to get the characters and story right. First I sketched some character studies and once the characteristics for each main character were approved, I started on the first illustration.

thumbnails

Thumbnails are always the first step. I chose the best three and presented them to the client. He liked #2, so I moved forward to the refined drawing which was the next stage of approval.

drawing

I gathered a lot of references (cars tipping over, blowing up, wheelchairs, and vans) and created a finished drawing. This is to scale with the final artwork dimensions (easier for me to transfer to bristol later for ink) and will be the composition and base for inking. I sent this drawing to the client for approval then moved on to inking. Since this is just a one-color final, I also told him the color I was thinking of using and he approved it.

ink

Here is the final ink on bristol. I scanned this into my computer, tweaked some minor things (dust particles, contrast, levels) and then applied one color and values.

finished illustration

Then the whole process starts again for the following illustration!

thumbnails

drawing

ink

final illustration

Then start the process over again for the final illustration in the commission.

thumbnails

There were some more steps in creating this illustration to the client's satisfaction. First, we decided on thumbnail #2, but he didn't want the crosses and instead suggested statues or monuments for a war-type of memorial. I did a lot of research and went forward with this idea into the drawing stage.

second approved drawing

You may have noticed in the thumbnail there were clouds. When I sent my client the drawing with the clouds, he didn't think it communicated the devastation well enough; he felt it was too heavenly. He suggested changing it to rubble, so I moved forward on that, keeping the overall shape of the clouds for compositional purposes, but making it rubble instead. The rubble was actually a lot of fun to draw! A couple of other minor tweaks and the drawing was approved to take to final.

ink

final illustration

I had a lot of fun inking these, coming off the highs of Inktober. My client was happy and so was I. Onward to the next project!

Inktober 2015: Paranormal Explorations, Batch Two

Inktober has comes to its end and I'm pretty damn happy to report I made it out of the month with 30/31 ink drawings! I did miss one day but I'm still pretty happy with making the majority of the month. Here are the rest of my paranormal-inspired Inktober drawings:

possession

Marie Laveau

banshee

chupacabra

UFO/alien abduction

Robert the doll

black shuck/devil dog

faeries

jack-o-lantern

for the last week I drew based on some of my favorite horror films... Children of the Corn

Nightmare Before Christmas

Let the Right One In

IT

Poltergeist

The Shining

Inktober was so much fun! I really liked some of these small drawings, so I may develop a few into more developed illustrations soon.

Inktober 2015: Paranormal Explorations, Batch One

I've been participating in this year's Inktober pretty well so far--only missed a few days and caught up right away! I decided to theme my illustrations for Inktober under the paranormal and supernatural. I am personally very intrigued and drawn to this subject matter so I knew it would be enticing for me to draw something new from within those realms each day. Also, there's Halloween! Who doesn't love creepy stuff in October? I also decided to standardize my sizes for ease of creation and sale. I'm working on 4.5x6 in. bristol board. Each Inktober drawing is available for sale for $25, including shipping! If you'd like to keep an eye on my Inktober originals for sale, follow my Facebook event.

Now, without further ado, let the creepiness begin...

black-eyed children

Victorian-era ghost

Nosferatu

ghosts in a graveyard... classic Halloween iconography!

shadow people

animal psi

doppleganger

ectoplasm

deva, or nature spirit

sleep paralysis

bloody mary

vampire

graveyard mystery

faceless woman ghost

pumpkins and a black cat... another classic Halloween iconography!

If you'd like to check out the rest of the month's Inktober drawings, you can also follow my Facebook fan page or stalk me on Instagram @datbootietho

I'll post the rest of the Inktober drawings in November. Enjoy the rest of October whether you're participating in Inktober, basking in the autumn season (of which I am very jealous of you since I'm in the constant sun of LA), or preparing your costume for upcoming parties and trick-or-treating!

APE 2015

Allentine on the right and myself on the left

Alternative Press Expo was a lot of fun this year, even with the change of venue and my need to commute to the Bay Area after moving to LA. Although there was definitely less attendees than last year when the convention took place in San Francisco, people still came out to San Jose. The table setups were nicer and the venue was cooler (Literally. Last year it got so hot inside!). However, the crowd wasn't as strong as previous years.

dat table tho...

I shared a booth with my friends who I tabled with last year, Allentine and Andy! I had a great time with them at APE and celebrating afterwards. I met a lot of cool people but wish I had more time to visit more artists who were tabling. Every time I made to dash away more people came to the booth, which is what you want at a convention, but I also would have liked to check the event out more.

my setup

I sold quite a few copies of my comic War Days which made me really excited. Thanks everyone who purchased a copy! You can now read War Days on my website. Also popular was our collaborative zine, Paws 'N Popcorn! We decided on a theme of TV shows and movies, making the characters into animals. You can still snag a copy of our zine and my comic on my Etsy shop! I would like to share with you now my contribution to Paws 'N Popcorn.

The IT Crowd

The X-Files

I had a lot of fun at APE this year and will definitely be returning next year with my next issue of War Days. Hopefully the attendance will bounce back from the change of venue. Thanks everyone who came out!