Friday, July 2, 2010

From scribbles to sketches

For today's blog post, I thought I'd share a little of my work process. Some people have wonderful sketchbooks which are works of art in and of themselves. Not me! My sketch book is largely a mix of scribbles and notes with few recognizable sketches in between. I use it to brainstorm more than anything else. I start off with an idea and a thumbnail sketch. And I mean thumbnail! To anyone but me, it might look like nothing more than chicken scratch. I mostly am trying to figure out my composition with these. They usually look something like this:


From there, I start to develop my characters and composition like this:


It's going to be a dancing bear. Can you tell? From here, I move onto finished sketches - which are transferred to my illustration board where I finally start painting. I'm not at that point yet with these sketches, so you'll just have to wait to see the finished product! Maybe it will be included on my next blog post. Until then, happy 4th of July weekend, everyone! (o:

4 comments:

  1. I love see other artists processes! I can't wait to see this bear when he's done, because he's looking wicked cute already!!

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  2. Michelle - thanks! I love looking at other artist's processes too. I'm rather jealous of people who keep lovely sketchbooks. But this is how I work, so I thought I'd lay it out like it is. I'm still at the very start of this piece, so this is maybe the first 1/3. I'm hoping to finish the bear in time for my next post!

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  3. Many of us keep sketchbooks for the purpose of working out ideas. I am one of those, too. I say embrace your scribbles. And I love these bears!!!

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  4. I am the same way, my sketchbooks are rough and make sense only to me, and sometimes not even me. I have even been tempted to rip out pages after seeing other peoples sketchbooks, heck Vita's meeting notes put my sketchbook to shame. I love the bear and love how he originated. See you at the opening!

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