Journal of a Something or Other

Woo, still going! All images link to Flickr where there are more shots and info.

This one was the title page illustration for Morningstar, if it were part of an old sf mag or a short story compilation.

I looked up a lot of pictures of hanging meats, making my search history even creepier than it normally is.  I made the basic sketch on some cheap-ass typing paper because that is how I roll.

And then the paint went on in the dry brush way that I am growing to love. I’m going to make myself use different approaches for each story’s set of illustrations, so I’ll have to revisit this technique later.

Then scan, clean up in Photoshop and pasting text in so we can play pretend like it’s a book.

Pretty dang happy with it.

HA. Oh man, I cannot believe I finished an illustration already.  I do plan on scanning some of the stuff I’m using as reference/illustration, but you’ll just have to enjoy some process pictures and finished image until then.  All images link to Flickr where there are more shots and info.

Splash page for end of Morningstar.

First Chase helped me get a reference shot. I kind of hate using myself for reference shots because my frame is weirdly proportioned and I always have to draw on more weight. But my easy-to-see-skeleton was nice for this reference in this case.  I did a rough sketch over the digital image in Photoshop, with a little bit of shading and printed it out.  Then I used a lightbox to do the basic pencils and I dug in with some black acrylic paint.

Kept painting. Started cleaning up with white. Various pen happened too. Sharpie, felt tip, micron.

With the figure done, it’s time for the background.  Since I don’t trust myself I did it on a separate sheet, placed over the figure, on the lightbox.

Looks okay so they both get scanned, cleaned up and composited. It didn’t take long.

I like it. Yay me. I especially like my tasteful way of hiding the bits between the legs. I am classy, is what.