The Brave Little Tailor: Illustration Process

When I started this years big personal project, I knew it was going to be a lot of work...and boy was I right. As I'm nearing completion though, I'm really pleased with how it's all coming out. It's been really rewarding on so many levels. The friend's I've made, collaborating with writers, not to mention I have a large new body of work rolling out for the winter shows. One of the things I really like about doing these special yearly projects though, is seeing how the work changes from year to year, thinking about how the family has grown, and all the new things we do and are capable of doing. I'm really lucky to be able to do the things we do, and am so happy to share it with you all.

Today, I have a large set of images to share for the first complete calendar image. Showcasing the climactic scene of "The Brave Little Tailor", the idea is that the kids and us are acting out each of the stories in a theater setting. As I've been designing these, I feel like our love of the muppets and puppetry are really showing, and I'm reminded of one of the reasons I began drawing in the first place. In high school, I wanted to be a puppeteer and work in the Henson Creature shop. At any rate, This is my basic process for creating an image. I hope you enjoy it!

I started off with the thumbnails at the right of the page (the full size version is at the top of the post), and then rough in the major forms. I'm working at about 9x12 on bristol board.

Next, I pencil in the details of the characters, and firm up some of my ideas for the background.

Then, I ink the main characters and scan them into the computer. Without the background.

 

I put the background together in illustrator, right on top of the original pencil drawing. I also paint in a base color for the characters to help isolate them and unify their color schemes.

Here I put the final calendar layout over everything to make sure it all fits. I add a texture to the page, as well as paper textures to the background elements. I lay down color on all the foreground elements quickly to give everything a base to start from.

 The Characters are painted.

 Here I added some details to the background like the stage floor, shadows cast by the set, and the theater spotlight.

 And last I went in and added some detail to the set pieces, finished up the floor and added some sheep to fill in some dead spaces.

Thanks for stopping in. I hope this all made some kind of sense. I enjoy posting about process, so I hope you all enjoy reading about it. Ha-ha-ha!  If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you. 

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Some Doctor Who To Finish Off A Week Of Being Sick

Hi all!  Mr Handmade here! I've been sick pretty much all week, and just miserable Wednesday and Thursday...Ugh. So between that and trying to keep up with freelance work I haven't done much drawing of my own.  Mrs Handmade and I have been watching Doctor Who on Netflix lately, and it is just incredible.  I look forward to that 45 minutes all day. :) Since I've been sick, and am pretty well obsessed with the Doctor right now, I thought I'd share some Doctor Who artwork this week.

 First is a little sketch I did from memory of the Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant. I didn't really get a very good likeness, but mostly it was about working out some of the shapes that I was thinking about for his face.  Hopefully the next one will work out better. :)

This one is a faux papercraft illustration for my friend Emily at The Crafty Geek. She asked me for some help redoing her logo, and since she makes a lot of Doctor Who stuff we thought it would be cool to go with that theme.

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Paper Dolls

Toys, toys, toys... I was thinking the other day that our lives have revolved around kids and making sure that there were plenty of (quality) toys to play with for a long time. I think the house will seem just a little bit empty when the girls outgrow their toys. Of course, we have a few friends who are young enough that don't have kids yet, and a few friends with kids that are old enough, that a new batch of kids will be along to play before too long.

I try to make time regularly to sit and draw, cut paper, paint or glue stuff with Abby. Sometimes it goes really well, and sometimes...well, lets just say that a nearly two-year-old, and a nearly one-year-old don't always mix well with arts and crafts time. At any rate, these sessions often evolve into something more than I intended, depending on Abby's interest in what I'm doing, and she was very interested in the drawings that she named "mommy and daddy", so we cut them out and mounted them on sticks.

The imaginative play that comes out of simple things like this is incredible.
On a more recent trip into cut paper puppet land, I got a little more involved, and actually used scrap-booking paper to make some pretty rad clothes for him. This one was a little wider, so that makes him a little more unwieldy, but I actually had popsicle sticks this time, instead of bamboo skewers like I've used in the past. On another note, I think the last ones were a little more successful because the pose was a bit more neutral.
We have fun making stuff together, and it's always great to see her sitting in the sun at the table, working busily on whatever.

Finally, a little bonus picture...It's funny to me that the one picture I took that day where I wasn't trying to get her to look at me Abby decides to be herself, and photo-bomb her sister.
Until next time...Take care and be good!