Digital Illustration Class-Original 3-part 2

"Honestly it is not THAT early dear..."

If you couldn't tell the topic for Illustration Friday this week was "EARLY."

Process: "LOOK mama, no lines!"

1. Come up with idea (this took awhile)
2. I sketched the general idea out as a whole compilation.
3. Researched different photo references for characters... (On Filemorgue)
   
4. Drew the characters on their own sheet of paper. (as explained yesterday)
   
5. Scanned them in and cleaned them up (as explained the past two days)
6. Got the lines on a new layer (as explained the past two days..)
7. Once I did this for both sketches, I compiled them into one document and immediately began adding my base colors.
   
8. in order to keep everything easy to work and rework, I had 4 essential groups of layers: people, background, car, and cat. Everything I did for an individual picture yesterday I did it for each group here.
9. Unlike yesterday I tested my colors with auto contrast...and other methods and found I really liked the computer's result...the only problem was that in order to get a true reading I had to merge my characters onto the white BG to get it...so in order to extract the colors I ended up paint-bucketing all the colors I wanted to keep onto my individual layers.
10. As explained yesterday I had layers for Base colors, shading, painting (shape), merge layer (to cut in with eraser and to finish painting off). Throughout the whole painting I kept the layers separate. So anyway I paint on a new layer over the line layer which is on multiply showing the colors I already made and fixed (I am basically working to get rid of my lines all-together.
11. I did so much in this painting I can't even begin to explain...when I look at the painting I can tell you what I did, but u get the general idea anyway. I was going to leave the painting as my tiger turned out (I have been enjoying the simple color exploration experiments), but found myself making softer transitions...
12. the end.

Okay...final notes:

• I really focused on the economy of my brushstrokes, and utilizing two colors per object. (Two colors to me means a base color and it's shadow.) Though towards the end I ended up throwing in a 3rd color (a highlight) in some areas.
• This is not a finished illustration in my mind. The white background was intentional, so it's not that, let's just say when I stare at it I find myself fixing things, and changing this and that...."IF I find another thing that I HAVE to FIX I'm gonna go CRAZY!" Phew. I probably shouldn't have tried doing this all in one day. Anyway in regards to exploration and learning this picture definitely was that.
• As in the past I found it hard to find reference on the internet to satisfy the picture in my head. To get somewhat close I used several pictures just for generalities, or to even just compare for human anatomy. (even now the picture in my head is not what ended up.)

Hopefully over the weekend I will try to get some of my files uploaded to the class server. >_< I am a bit tired. haha and I have an even harder master study and project next week!