Cartooning is such a fun process. I absolutely love the design process, going from a basic sketch to a clean, finished piece of art.
I just finished a design for a client and was given a lot of freedom to create this cartoon. She emailed me several close up head shots, along with some basic information (he was a criminal lawyer, a runner, and she wanted something saying, “The Great…”).
Since many people have asked about my design process, I thought I’d share the breakdown. A step by step of the cartoon being created.
Normally I begin with a sketch with my 21 inch Cintiq on my Mac with a photo open next to my canvas as I draw. But at times, I enjoy making a pencil sketch on paper.
As great as digital can be, I just love drawing in many different media and this one happened to be one I started on a blank piece of paper nearby.
I scanned the sketch, then traced the basic design I created on paper into the Cintiq.
Step 1: Rough Pencil of Head, the Body:
Step 2:
Scan and trace in Photoshop. Most of the time, I use Corel’s Painter, but I like using Photoshop as well for certain projects.
I zoom up on my line work to make sure they are clean and not rough sketchy lines. Later, I will work on thicker lines for shadows.
Step 3:
I duplicate the layer with my black line work and set that layer to multiply and then I begin to color.
Once I am finished coloring, I then merge the layers.
You don’t have to merger your layers. But I find it useful to be more minimalistic and not have a ton of layers. I guess this is a way to restrict what I do so that I don’t get hit with “Analysis Paralysis” and keep moving things around. Like drawing on paper, I am locked into my creative decision.
Step 4:
I started to add the background scene of the city and courthouse with sketching in Photoshop, fixing line work at close range, then color.
In the past years, I’ve grown a lot and learned much. And I think it really important to actually draw the background images and match the style of your main subject.
Some people like to use Photoshop to just quickly add photos of buildings in the back. I have grown to feel, for my work, I don’t like mixing photos and cartoon style.
Step 5:
I added color shadows and other small touch ups with the details given to me about the scene (burglar, paper and writing).
I try my best to balance the drawing and keep a good composition.
Finished! Wah-lah!
Finished! Wah-lah!
This is one of many ways I do my studio digital. As I mentioned above, most of the time I use Painter because of its specialized toolset. Sometimes I’ll do most in Painter and then patch up with Photoshop. However, this one I did all design in Photoshop CS3. They are all tools to get the job done and I think as an artist, we should use any of the tools at our disposal.
