I used to do technical illustration - exploded views and the like. We (as a collective) used a layered technique. Start with your rough layout, then add a clean layer of vellum, clean up your drawing, add detail, etc until finally you had an illustration that would rival anything done on a PC today. I can scan a few examples if anyone is interested.
My point is that layered drawing is still a valuable tool I use today everytime I draw.
Good noir writing combined with superb rendering. Telling the story all that more effectively through the use of anthropomorphic characters.. eg. they look like animals in human form. No small task to make that believable enough that you can'ts top turning pages.
(if you just Google a particular artists - have your search results set to return images you'll find its a great way to find a broader set of results)
I couldn't agree more!!! Many years ago I hired one of the top Japanese technical illustrators to do an exploded review of a piece of electronic equipment. And it was amazing to see him come in with large pieces of vellum with amazing exploded view work. The British publisher Dorring-Kinsley (DK) has a very good book that shows cut-aways and exploded views of the different tanks of war. Brilliant!
This method of working is the same one I used for any finished illustration. Granted these days I can often forgo the vellum or tracing paper if I'm inking the art digitally... but I still enjoy the traditional way of working. In fact I just bought a pad of vellum today for that purpose. If only I could ink with a brush well.
If you had any examples that show your thumbnail, your rough and the tight version and the final version I'd love to see it. It might drive home the process for people in the thread!
This link here... shows a very mastered process to arrive at his finished artwork. I'm a HUGE fan of artists who post their process for others to see!! This guys work is quality and he takes the time to show his process from thumbnail to finished illo. Lovely.
Yes man! Go go go! Start getting your constructions lines in the for the facial features! And start hammering on proportions! You are going places with this sketching man! That is key towards improving!
He did the writing but the art was by Juanjo Guarnido - a former Disney animator himself. He's awesome. You can really see the 1980s Disney/Don Bluth style in his drawing but mixed with a real eye for realism. I like his drawings a lot.
oops! Sorry yes you are correct! Yes and Don Bluth is one of my favorites! I'm an easy sell for this though as the illustrations are done in watercolor and the rendering for scenes and environments with people in them is out of this world. He often tackles scenes I wouldn't even know where to begin... such as mottled late afternoon sunlight through the trees on characters... jeebus... complex!
Slip, Moosey, thanks for the Black Sad example. I surfed around a bit and, whoa, that's not just good - it's almost unbelievable that someone is that good. I don't know all the ways to get that good right now, but that's some definite inspiration!
Slip, thanks man! I've taken a lot of your advice to heart and I guess it's starting to slowly build some steam. I'm hitting the reference materials to try and work on a lot of basics and the rest is going to be practice, practice, practice. And thanks for keeping this thread going. It'll be interesting to look back at this thread a year from now!
It's well worth buying the Blacksad collected edition from Amazon - good translation and mindblowingly good artwork. I'm not really into anthrpomorphic animals but this guy hits all the right facial expressions while still using the anatomy of an animal's face - it's very impressive. And, as slip said, the watercolours are amazing.
@ Mike Miello - good stuff. If you read through the thread you'll see we have a new topic each week... that's a word or a concept or a theme. We then sketch it up and post up. It's not a thread for masterpieces for finished ultra detailed illustrations... but rather sketches where we can see the process you're working at to arrive at your finished sketch!
Feel free to join in... this weeks topic is 'manual labor' so anything related to that. Never hard to find a bit of roadworks going on to use as reference. Post up!
EDIT: Ok I just go the pun! I'd have to say towards that end... you need to be able to show or illustrate that pun without having to literally spell it out. My guess is the vast majority of MAP members aren't going to get it as they don't read Chinese characters (I myself don't do too well with the simplified characters as here in HK we use the traditional characters). Have a go at the same gag but this time only using the character and his placing and pose to show the same concept. My guess it'll be much much harder... but good fun as well. Liking the brush strokes.
Ok... jeebus didn't manage to get any sketches done on last weeks topic. We do however need a new topic for this week! I say we up the ante a bit and get our characters away from floating in space. Let's get some type of character in an environment. At least enough environment to be able to clearly read what the theme or genre is. So without further ado... let's go for....
are you ready for it.....
here goes.....
STEAMPUNK!
there is tons of reference out there for this one! Have it people. I will get sketching as well... bonus points for anyone that goes for more than a single character in a scene. Try to get the environment down... can be interior or exterior... but really work to give your character some context!!
Things to consider... what period does the steampunk genre borrow from? Clothing and costume wise? Mechanically which eras lend a lot to the feel of this genre? It's a subject with a lot of lattitude! Get sketching!!!