Making a New Book - Documenting my own process
-
@hakepe I'm quite fortunate that my recent books haven't had any tight deadlines so I can mostly work on it at my own pace, however for work that needs to be done quickly I would write out a time plan first. Once you can gauge how fast or long it might take you to complete something you will feel more comfortable dealing with those deadlines.
@miranda-hoover The snail house was my favorite, but it made the scale of things too unbalanced and didn't work with the composition I wanted to do so we ultimately went with the cardboard house.
@mrsdion In the past was of the same mind to rush to the final painting, but I had so many occasions where I would have to backtrack or restart things as the foundation wasn't properly built first.
-
Idea Thumbnails
Once I have the character designs complete I will start focusing on the sketches for each page. My initial doodles are either on scraps of paper or tiny digital sketches and I try to avoid as much detail as possible. In this way I can see quickly whether a composition works and whether the painting reflects the story. The point is to keep things simple, quick and throw around a bunch of ideas to see where things go.
When I feel that a sketch is working I will go over it again with a little more detail (image 2) but i'm still just focusing on basic shape. As I add more an more to a concept it becomes clearer as to whether it fits in and if I choose to redo it then I don't lose much time.
In image 3 I go over the sketch again adding in the characters and finally adding a some light and shadow. This stage gives a lot more life to the project and the path to getting a final concept is a step closer. However, I still need to do 1 more pass over before I consider the idea complete, but by this point the foundation is becoming much stronger.
As a bonus here is a concept sketch for the tick design that is needed in one of the spreads, the process is most the same, sketch small with a big brush and refine down.
-
@Gary-Wilkinson Nice! All the best!
-
@Gary-Wilkinson Really nice work Garry.
its great seeing your process, you characters ideas are great. -
This is really good @Gary-Wilkinson! Thank you for taking the time to share your insights!
-
Light and Shadow Studies
When I'm happy with the concepts i'll send them over to the publisher to get them approved and I'll begin to refine them and add in more detail. Most of the designs stayed mostly the same, however I wanted to redo spread 7 as the composition felt too similar to spread 6. I also needed to adjust spread 11 as the stories in the newspaper needed to have an uneven coverage.
To get a better sense of the scene I add some light and shadow, which adds some life to the sketches. These studies will be used as reference as I move into the next stage of adding color and when I wish to check my values later on.
My next step will be to do some quick color studies and then finalize the sketches so that they are ready for the final painting.
-
I love this! Your marks remind me a bit if Will Terry’s pencil works. So good!
-
@Gary-Wilkinson This is so amazing! Thank you for sharing your process! Really appreciate it!
I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.-
Were you given any illustrator notes before starting this project? If not, did you ask for any?
-
Is the first thing that the publisher sees from you? All previous decisions of character design, style etc. were made by you personally?
-
Did you do the value studies in thumbnail size? That's a lot of clean detailing and texture!
-
Is there a reason you use a tint in your studies as opposed to B&W?
-
-
Thus whole post is so good!! Love your characters. Getting to see your process is amazing too.
-
Thanks for sharing this Gary! This is very helpful and enjoy seeing your approach!! Keep up the great work!
-
Very cool man! Quick question on size on the thumbs - there's still what looks to me like a fair amount of detailed marks on the last step you posted (Light and Shadow Studies). Are you completely redrawing each of these at a larger size for the final detail and painting? Or are you doing the thumbs really zoomed out and you're working on the "final" sizes at this point?
Thanks for posting all these!
-
- No notes exactly, I have worked with this publisher/author before and gives me quite a bit of freedom in how I work.
- I initial send character concept sketches and then idea thumbnail sketches of the concepts, these value studies are the last step before focusing on the final paintings.
- The value studies were of a larger size so not really thumbnails at this point, but I still try to keep things simple. You could do these as thumbnails too, but I wanted to refine the sketches anyhow so I blended both processes. @jdubz
- No reason, just a personal choice. I have done them b+w, bluish tints etc in the past. As long as I get the information I need it doesn't matter so much.
-
@Gary-Wilkinson said in Making a New Book - Documenting my own process:
I initial send character concept sketches and then idea thumbnail sketches of the concepts
-
How many character concept sketches do you send? Do you give them an option or do you send the ones you've chosen and just tweak them based on feedback?
-
Is the thumbnails with the yellow highlights in the previous thread what you shared with them?
-
Do you share these with the whole team or just the AD privately?
-
Have you maintained the same process since your first book with them?
I'm just starting work on a big project and have been given full freedom to work as well. They've given me a deadline for the sketches but I'm wondering if I should share my character sketches and rough thumbnails with the AD first?
-
-
@Gary-Wilkinson Ah gotcha. I had just started thinking about this in a project I'm working on right now. I had made small thumbnails and then redrew them at the larger size and I felt like it lost something in translation between. I had thought to maybe do them at the same size but just zoom out so that I'm refining all that energy from the sketches once I was happy with a basic comp.
-
Color Studies
With my value studies sorted I can start looking at color. I try to use a big brush and put down a bunch of colors until I can find what works well. I like to keep things simple and in keeping with my style. These colors will be a guideline for the final painting and I expect to add in a lot more detail, but for this stage they are complete enough.
Whilst painting, there were a few areas that weren't fitting in as well that became more noticeable, so even though i'm mostly focusing on color it still helps further refine the overall painting.
-
@Gary-Wilkinson looking beautiful!
-
Really coming to life @Gary-Wilkinson!
-
Hi @Gary-Wilkinson can I ask how you chose your color palette?
Its clear from your thumbnails that there is a consistent palette running through the book but you're not limiting yourself and including saturated blues, greens, purples, reds, oranges etc.
This is something I struggle with so its nice to see it done so well. I often find my colors losing saturation as I try to make them work together.
Great job.
-
@Gary-Wilkinson I love your lighting and style huhu. Thanks for sharing your process!!!
-
Sorry for the late update. I was hoping to upload a WIP to final piece painting, however I've been working through a few spreads at the same time, so nothing is at it's final stage yet. However I thought I would show how I start a painting.
Previously I started painting everything on the canvas and detailed parts at different speeds, however in trying to simplify my process I begin with flat colors and separate them on their own layers. Each additional layer will be clipped to the master layer so that I can adjust things quickly and not worry about having to backtrack if I make a mistake.
@skillydan Good question, however I don't really have a great answer as to how I chose my palette. Generally I try to keep things simple and focus on the primary colors, and just go with what feels right. I try play with my lighting to avoid making everything feel over saturated (though I always feel like I walk a fine line), and this also helps put more focus on where I want the reader to look.
