More Process and Also Turkey.

Well, hello out there!
It's Thanksgiving week--my favorite holiday!  I have a lot to be thankful for this year (thanks, 2012!) and I also can't wait to eat the T-Day meal and lots of pumpkin pie and go into a food coma surrounded by my best friends: Heaven!
  But till then here is another blog-post for you all!  I haven't been able to post the last couple of weeks because I've been more focused on writing and I'm not posting that stuff.  However, I got such an amazing response from my last post all about my process I decided I will focus more on that in the next few posts.      So I've decided that I will make a new illustration every couple of weeks and keep track of my process for you.  I would do more than that but it's not like I can click a button and take a picture of what's in my head--it takes time!  And switching between the writing side of the brain and the drawing side of the brain is not that easy or comfortable so if I'm writing then I tend to just write and write and not draw much during that time.
  But I digress....This week I decided I needed to focus more on conceptual art for Hero's Journey so everyone can see what I'm talking about!
  So After flipping through some Art History books, because yes, I'm a nerd, I found myself drawn to Northern Renaissance Landscapes and I loved how they played with space, perspective and atmosphere.  Plus I loved their textural and color choices.
  Here is the sketch I came up with after that:

This is a decent sized sketch, about 3" by 3".  Very sloppy, you see?  Think of it like rough notes, all I need are reminders of where things go.

Then, of course the actual drawing happens.  I didn't stop to scan and save my penciled lines for you this time--sorry!  I though about it but I had a really good momentum going so I just went ahead with the inking which you see here:

Wow, so busy.  If I wasn't going to color this I would use the weight and texture of the line to create depth.

  The next steps are all about coloring and this time I wanted an Autumnal theme. "Hero's Journey" is told visually in a lot of ways and one of those ways is through the changing of the seasons. When the reach Sayid's (the giraffe) Palace (See that palace, just tantalizingly out of your view?) it is early Autumn and they have been travelling for a couple of months, now. Orehn, (the snake bunny) has just joined them and, as yet, his motivations are obscured. That's why I blocked him with the tree branch. I'm deep like that. 

Here's the next step:

I don't know about you but I find these black lines to be so flattening and distracting.  Some people like it,  so, I don't know...?

 Since I didn't save my pencil drawing I decided to show you this thing I do that I think is really fun.  When I'm trying to see if the colors are working well I click off the layer with the lines.  I should still be able to see the image fairly clearly without the lines or else the color needs more work.  So here is what the image looked like without the lines:

I love it!  I can totally see everything, which means I am ready to color those hideous black lines and finish this up.

And so, friends, Voila!  The final image:

One of my favorite images.  I love these characters and I love this story. 

  And so, how long, you ask, did it take me to create this image?  Well, I work fast so it only took me 4 days.  There were two nights in which I dreamed of just painting leaves.  All night--I woke up thinking, oh yeah, I painted leaves all night....and that's when I know I've achieved something--and THAT is an amazing and delicious Thanksgiving Meal that I'm really looking forward to.

Well, I will be back next week with some new stuff.  I have another vacation coming up!
Be well and be grateful, my American friends.
  Everyone else be grateful, too, come on!!!!

Thanks for visiting my little spot on the web!

--Beckarooooo!