An Adventure in Artsy Fartsy, with Jonathan Elliott

// July 30th, 2012 // Monster Loves You!

Ichiro: I’m just going to let Jonathan Elliot introduce himself.

Jonathan: <insert Dejobaan introduction to its tall and handsome drawing-person and /or what the post will be covering.>

Ichiro: Okay, so this is a post about the background art development process in our upcoming Monster Loves You!.  I will mix you a drink while Jonathan regales you with all things.

Step 1: Sketchy!

Jonathan: This is how every masterpiece starts: with squiggly lines everywhere and no real clue as to what I’m doing. We only know that this drawing will resemble a house! Or the inside of one. Who knows! Moving on…

Step 2: Lines!

Jonathan: Yesss, now we’re on the ball. Lines like these help people understand what they’re looking at. They’re so helpful I might even use them later. Maybe. At this point, I’m even considering going so far as to add color(s) to the piece, which may or may not be a good idea. Let’s find out.

Step 3: Color(s)!

Jonathan: Bam! Somewhat success! So, a base coat, for all you soon-to-be artisty types, students, etc is your best friend. This is where we make big, smart, cigar smoking, executive color decisions. We do this now, rather than getting teary-eyed later when we figure out we’ve been detailing for 4 hours and haven’t gotten anywhere, give up on the piece and never see it again. True stories, there.

Ichiro: Gentle reader, I’m back with your Strawberry Cosmo. I won’t judge.

Step 4: Highlight and Shadow!

Jonathan: Easy peasy, lemon… something.  Anyway, now this picture has some depth. This is also under its own layer, just like the line art and base color. Again, doing things this way is keyyyy. This will make it easy to change these little details if I need to, rather than getting sucked into the prementioned bottomless pit of detail over-correction.

Step 5: Details! (1 of 3)

Jonathan: Now things get fun. This is where we get to throw in all the little tidbits that make the picture look like serious business. I’ve also bumped up the saturation on the base color because it looked about as exciting as gum on a sidewalk. Now it looks like freshly chewed gum on a sidewalk.

Step 6: Details! (2 of 3)

Jonathan: Oho! Now we’ve done leveled up. Tons of questions answered here: “Doesn’t water usually reflect things?” According to science, yes. “Doesn’t a limited light source usually create more extreme illuminations and shadows?” Also yes, I guess, so, fine, we’ll add that too. “What happens when the monst…”  No more questions.

Step 7: Details! (3 of 3)

Jonathan: Mmmmm… effects. A friend mentioned the piece looked a little flat. I said he was wrong and secretly proceeded to remove all flatness. Anyway, this is an easy, fun fix. Setting a new layer to “overlay” with low opacity, and strategically spot-painting on some black or white gives us much more depth than we had before, and makes the piece less flat, something I figured out entirely  on my own. Anddd, finished! We’ve gone from an indiscernible series of squiggles to a thought out, fully rendered piece.

Thank you much for reading this and looking at pictures. Any other questions / concerns / critiqes (critiques which I will deny the existence of, only to implement later) may be directed in email form to: stickman.design@gmail.com. *Wave*

Ichiro: Do what he says, and nobody gets hurt.