Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Wrasslin'

A big ol' ink thingy I've been working on. I am getting better at backgrounds and perspective...but still not good.
[No cross-posting to Tumblr or Facebook, please--it's work-for-hire. I just wanted to share it with my T.A.G. brethren. And sistren (hi, Beata!)]

UPDATE: Hope this isn't an overindulgence, but here's the original pencil and the ensuing line drawing of the characters that I printed out and used to ink the final (you can see how I spread all the figures out from the initial blue-line sketch):

11 comments:

MrGoodson2 said...

Beautiful. I'm inspired to do something ambitious for Inktober 31.

These cartoon characters are great. I don't know the client, but you should be able to do more just like it.

A great job of honing your ability and doing something that completely suits you. Gorgeous editorial line art pieces.

MrGoodson2 said...

Have you paid close attention to having an original that looks just like the published piece? The originals might get some big bucks if photoshop hasn't made a lot of the tones. But an original of this would be great even with a few tones missing.

MrGoodson2 said...

Lots of reasons to revisit and find new things in this one. Really like that toupee floating off the guy's head. How many of these personalities are recognizable and assigned to do as caricatures?

Tom Moon said...

What an incredible illustration Marty! I hope you charged the client five figures for this. The work being posted by everyone lately has been so good! Double-inspiring. I've got to crank up my own efforts and get something post-able done by the end of this year.

Beata said...

MARTY! ... and Everyone:
This blog's posts and comments are visible to the general public.

The link has been promoted in a number of different places, including through SD Comic Fest. Have a look at the "members" list. You're sharing your posts with WAY more than just your TAG brethren.

Mindblowing drawing, btw!

JMG said...

DDDAAAAAAAAAAAAMN! What else can I say?

Davis Chino said...

Thanks for the kind words, brothers (and sister!).

And thanks for the heads up, Beata. I know this blog is public, but it's not, y'know...PUBLIC.

(If I was being paid the five figures Tom suggests, then I'd worry about sharing it--tho' yes, I am being paid--yay.)

The perspective is still a bit wonky--look at the odd angle of the desk in the middle of the ring (oof!). But there's not too much PhoSho at work--mainly I put a few moderating masks over some portion of the background seats to lessen their darkness/contrast. And I had a couple splotchy washes that needed to be evened up.

I used a kind of interesting process this time: penciled and then inked just the characters over the sketchiest of layouts (on 14 X 18 bristol); scanned this drawing, which was pretty much just line drawings of all the characters, (I did some noodling of their placement, cleaned up mistakes, smudges, etc.); took this file to Staples and had them print it b&w on a sheet of 11x17 bristol. The printout worked great--the blacks were super black, and the ink itself was laid onto the paper so thick you could feel it's contour standing up (but--interestingly!--this ink had a waxy finish and refused to take any over-inking--added ink would bubble and not sink in).

Took the printout home and filled in all the background using brushpens, crowquill and brushes. Then scanned that (in 3 pieces). Once I got the pieces (more or less) aligned, I took the file with the original line art (which I'd turned into pure line art via that cool PhoSho trick I'd learned here--from Beata? Candice Colbert??--thank you again!) and added that on top. Worked like laying an animation cel of sharp lines over a watercolor background. This really POPPED all the characters' line work in a way that would be impossible just using my crappy scanner.

Now I will wait to hear back on all the things they want changed....

Davis Chino said...

...and El, loved yr comments. Glad you didn't think the floating toupee was too much!

I had some direction on character type, but it was pretty general (y'know what you get on this sort of job--about all they tell you is, "...he's short, she's hot, he's English..."). None of them are caricatures. The commisioner had seen my big Paris restaurant print and wanted something like that.

Tommoon, I am glad to hear you are inspired. We eagerly await yr next posting!!

MrGoodson2 said...

No way it's over-anything. Love all the extra notes and drawings. The process sounds strealined enough. Just isn't producing that big, nice, Davis original that could go for 6 figures in a few years. Or at least Jack Davis original money.

Very interesting to see the subtle differences from the blue pencil to the inks.

JMG said...

Ah, the magic revealed

Rickart said...

Just spectacular! I'm totally serious about talking to the MAD folks. You would bring that book into the 21st century!