If you've seen my Tong Picnic work, my best pieces use the following process:
Draw rough composition in Photoshop > Print it out > Draw over the printed comp & scan > Finalize line drawing > Add color > Final Touches.
The back & forth between computer & pencil takes time and it's not fun. I'm working on a graphic novel (!) and need a process that is 100% digital, so I'm beginning some tests I'll share here.
PROCESS TEST #01
Goal? A 100% digital process that's analog looking enough to be likable but is fast enough it works to illustrate a graphic novel. Also, in the past my work has been criticized for being too "young" so I need to age it up. A grungier, dirtier look.
I started with a Google image reference of a Wolverine, but I wanted something more ferocious and wolflike. Here's the finished piece & the steps leading up to it below.
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| STEP 4: FINAL COLOR
This is the finished piece. I still have a long way to go to find the style I plan to work in for the graphic novel, but the roughness of it definitely ages it up from how I usually work. I used a technique of putting the most detail around the focal point and then reducing complexity outward from there. That keeps this hybrid painterly/comic style quick to produce and again, ages it up a little by not "telling too much."
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| STEP 3: ROUGH COLOR
Here I roughed out the color and nearly abandoned it. Luckily I just kept moving forward. The most important thing here was that I didn't give up on it. I just kept asking "How could I make it better?" as I worked.
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| STEP 2: INK (digital)
During the ink process, I added some ferociousness. Bigger, pointed ears, increased the angularity, etc. I inked until any additions or cleanup I did started to detract from whatever "life" it had. Still, I wasn't confident it would work at this point.
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| STEP 1: PENCIL (digital)
I'm trying to develop a style for a graphic novel so I need to work fast. As soon as I had the sketch to a point I felt like I could ink it - I moved on.
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