Wednesday, March 4, 2009

How Microsoft took Japan - Sketch


After several days at a convention, and another day immobilized from the flu, I'm back at the drawing board. I'm not feeling well, but I was able to get out of bed and get some work done.

With Lindsay's help (that coffee was amazing!), I returned to my Microsoft takes Japan picture sometime before noon. I had a complete rough sketch with a nice palette of colors spotted in. I considered moving straight to painting. However, after staring at the picture for several minutes, I felt nothing but dread. There was too much uncertainty in the line work.


Some artists can deal with loose lines. I cling to structure. If I'm unsure what a line indicates, or find an error somewhere, I'll go nuts trying to rectify the problem. I don't want to think about structural problems in a picture when I'm concentrating on the paint job. Ultimately, I decided to print out the rough sketch do another pass on paper.


8 hours later, the pencils are finished.

If you have any thoughts on the piece, let me know. Coloring starts tomorrow.


One final note. Thank you NeoLucky for your advice on the image composition. I listened and thought about what you had to say, but ultimately went with the third concept. I felt that the position of the helmet placed greater emphasis on the unmasking of the character than the other two drafts. Still, I appreciate your feedback.

1 comment:

  1. Hey you're welcome! Haha, I'm glad to see it was taken into account either way, very nice of you, and considerate to say so. And my GOD your linework always astounds me, really intricate work on this. The "cashflow" tidal wave is pretty awesome!

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