The next scientist portrait is finished: Neil deGrasse Tyson! A whole lotta Star Talk radio and Cosmos was listened to and watched for the making of this illustration.
As always, I start with research, sketching, and thumbnailing.
Can you tell I was excited to draw him?
Sketching ideas and compiling quotes
Hey, guuurrrll...
After deciding on the composition and getting a sense of drawing Neil, it was onto the finished drawing which I would ink from. I broke up the different elements of the illustration separately--Neil, icons for the border, planetary orbits--since I knew I was going into Photoshop for everything after inking.
Finished drawing. I don't want it to be super refined since I'll be transferring and inking it, but I want the right shapes and features defined.
Sweet, sweet ink...
Then all the inking and all the coffee.
I scanned everything, cleaned up my line art, and got to work in Photoshop.
Then the final finished product:
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a sassy guy.
This will be available as a print at APE in October along with the Carl Sagan illustration. I'm going to take a break from this series while I finish up my comic before the convention. Hopefully I'll have time to make some more before APE. I also plan on doing author portraits, but I want to do at least one female scientist before moving onto the authors.
Until next time!
