Lion and the Mouse Process A

I am in the process of Illustrating a picture book for Benchmark Press based on the Aesop Fable-Lion and the Mouse. I wanted to throw up a quick process image from the book. This will quickly show my transition from rough sketch to final image of a lone character. I'll show more process later about backgrounds, layout and type. But till then here's the Mouse!!!

This was the initial rough sketch.

This is where I really went in and tightened the sketch before going to finals. (BIG difference huh!!)

Here is where I lay in the base colors of the mouse and establish his/her color scheme. I do this by having a second layer beneath the tight sketch. The tight sketch is set to multiply. This allows only the black portions of the sketch to show up when the layers are viewed together.

The final step is the finished painting. I paint this on a layer on top of the tight sketch and base color. If need be, I merge the three layers to create the final file. 

Let me know if you have any questions!! :)

HALL PASS SKETCHES

Some more Hall Pass-Sketches. Upcoming Project!

Perspective Schmerspective!!!

I decided to pull this sketch that I'd done a little while ago to finish it up. Easy right!!? I need newer images for my portfolio. Images that are in line with the type of artwork I want to do.

Looking at the sketch I realized I had fallen into my old trap of designing right to left! So I flipped the image and went in to tighten things up. Everything was fine until I decided to do correct perspective on the room and block city. Jeezums!!! It is breaking me DOWN! LOL!

Does anybody have any ideas on how to get this to work better? Would the perspective on the block city be the same as the room. If so, it fisheyes SOO bad that it would make the room unreadable. When do you decide to forget the rules and just go with what looks ok versus what is actually correct and accurate? Everything actually looked ok until I decided to make it correct. Love to hear what you guys think!

Character Sketches

Some rejected character sketches for a job! Maybe next time! Enjoy!!!

Playing with a new brush

Experimenting with a new brush that I made according to Drew Green's specifications. It has a very pastel-ish quality to it depending on how it's used. I have to admit that I kind of like it! I'm just not sure where and how I want to use it. What do you guys think of the experiment I did with the brush on the heads? The girl was more solidly rendered first then I went back in with the brush. The two boys I solely used the Drew Green brush and tried to make the pastel qualities more evident. Which do you like better?



Here are the specifics on how to create the brush in Photoshop. Just copy and paste the image in Photoshop then follow the directions. If you use it and like it, please thank Drew!! Thanks!! :)

Sketchy Sketch!

There's been a whole lot of posts about other folks. Time to throw up a sketch of my own!! Goshdarnit!
This is a character I'd done prematurely. I like him and want to use him on some activity sheets. So I claim him back.
I'll throw him in a skate park or something of that nature later for an activity sheet. Stay Tuned!!

Speaking of Activity Sheets here is the Final Version of the Calvin one. No words won but I did add start and finish. Holla!!

Cardinal Luv Fest!

Sketch for a Vector Spot image! I think his expression could be amped a bit. Maybe make him smiling a bit more? You know, he's cute but the emotion isn't really reading as anything specific to me. What do ya think?

As always Click for bigger image! Then Use Ctrl/+ to enlarge the image!
(Can be done multiple times.)

Also, yes, this will also be going up for "Mail" on Illustration Friday! I want to have it done by Wednesday! Which also means that it needs to be a worksheet. (Worksheet Wednesday you know!) I'm thinking a crossword puzzle will work. Anybody got some clues and words that will go with the theme of this sketch??

Wish me luck!