New Illustration

OK so I know this is totally NOT what the final of the previous post is supposed to look like. This is actually a completely different image for a different part of the story (duh) lol.
I guess, you know, I tried to post my work in progress as I do each part and take a break, turns out, I cannot work like that... at least not yet anyway.
Turns out, soon after I posted that last update, with the shipwreck in progress, I got a whole different idea on how to do that scene. Im still not 100% happy with my new idea for the shipwreck scene so, I have "placed that bun back in the oven" so to speak. Long story short: Ship wreck scene has went back to the drawing board. (Ok I gotta stop with the analogies now, I sound like my high school spanish teacher, yuck.)

ANYWAY to make up for that, I have completed another scene (above) with the little boy discovering that the pigeon is actually a homing pigeon, (I swear to God this whole story will make sense once all the illustrations are done) I realize that because I'm jumping from scene to scene this is all very confusing, but anyway, at this point i really just want you to admire the art. Anyways. on the work in progress



This is the initial sketch. I realize there is no hint of a background what so ever. Sometimes I work that way, and I decide to figure out the background when I reach the digital stage. The reason I would do this sometimes is because the pose for the character was a bit difficult to figure out, so when I felt like I finally nailed it I'm not willing to scrappy up the page with a background that might not look good. The digital experimentation is neater.


This was actually my reference for this image. Turns out this is the "correct" way to hold a pigeon. I figured since this little boy in the story is such a huge animal enthusiast he would know something so technical like this, so I incorporated it in his character.


And this would be my digital lines. The black lines are more final lines and to discern figure from background. (Its more cosmetic and personal than anything. It helps me so I do it) The black line work is also done on a new layer I keep the blue background work on a separate layer and use that as a guide for the background colors.
All the background colors go on a separate layer, in one layer, a friend advised me that its a good idea as when you want to color adjust the entire image its easier when everything is in one layer. I keep my figures separated in their own layer however because I find it makes the neatening up stage much easier and stress free.
Special note here: His hands and the pigeon if you noticed, are much smaller and more proportional here than they are in the "original" sketch. Once my sketch was opened in photoshop, I used the lasso tool to circle the bird and his hands, and free transform>shrinked them to a more suitable size, then I did my digital line work over that.



This is the color test and the lighting test for the image. Pretty much more of the same as in the last images. I paint the background first, I get it as close as I can to finish as I can, then I work on the figures in the image. This is how I work for all my images. I do it for 2 reasons:
#1 the figures are influenced by the lighting of the scene, so it makes sense to me to do the background first.
#2 Personally, for me the fun part of doing this, is the figures! So I do the background first to get it out of the way, so I can savour and have fun with the figures. When I was now starting out I used to complete the figures first, then I would find myself in the situation of "I dont wanna paint a background for this" or "CRAP I can't figure out this lighting! It looks off! (duh because I lit the figure before coming up with the scene's lighting.



And this is the final again. :) Thats all for now folks. This week is crunch time for me. Im trying to get as close to finishing as possible if not completely finished with this story by the end of the week so I'll be updating more frequently. I currently have about 3 more sketches complete and ready for finessing at the moment so I'm feeling pretty good about meeting my deadline. So till then, See ya later.