Tiki Bar - Finish

This is a big jump from yesterday's post. Sorry. Sometimes I put my head down for work and don't keep images for the steps taken. Sorta kills the whole process deal, doesn't it? Oops.

So here is the finished art minus the lettering. It's pretty clean and open. I tried to get a 1950s feel to where the letters are placed to spell out the resort. Each letter would be placed in those yellow shapes at the top. There is also copy in the black box and under it in the final art. The palm trees substituting for the foliage that was at the bottom in the rough. It just started getting too busy at the bottom with the chairs and the tiki masks.

This was done in Illustrator.

This is Post #1604

Tiki Bar - Process

This is something I just finished for a long time client. This is for a resort that wanted a fun image of their tiki bar on t-shirts, napkins, glasses, etc. I did a couple of rough digital sketches and the image below was selected as the jumping off point.

Artwork © 2012 Gene Gonzales

First thing I wanted to do was design the tiki masks. Below are the two that made the cut in their rough form. These were drawn in my sketchbook and are only 3 inches tall. After scanning them, I enlarged them and printed them out on bristol board.

Artwork © 2012 Gene Gonzales

Now I have the blue line printout of the rough to ink. The final art will be done in Illustrator, but I didn't want to create the art in Illustrator. It would look a little too slick for my purposes. So I inked the pieces on bristol board. Since the tiki masks are symmetrical, I only had to ink one side. After I scanned the art, I duplicated the left side of each one, flipped it and used it to make the right sides. The line art is a bit uneven and that's what I wanted. When I take it into Illustrator and use Live Trace to convert it into vector art, the uneven look will become more apparent. More tomorrow.

Artwork © 2012 Gene Gonzales

This is Post #1603

Harley Quinn - Inks

Harley Quinn © DC Comics

Final inks for the Harley piece I have subjecting you to for three different posts. :)

Ink on 9" x 12" Strathmore Bristol Board

Update: I have put Harley on Ebay. If you are interested, you can find her here: Harley Quinn

This is Post #1602

Harley Quinn - Pencils

Harley Quinn © DC Comics

I took a bit of time this afternoon to transfer the digital sketch of Harley to the final Bristol Board. I should have a bit of time tomorrow to finish her up. Baby steps gets it done. :)

This is pencil on 9" x 12" Strathmore Bristol Board.

This is Post #1601 

A Superman Family Christmas - The Big Commission

Superman Family © DC Comics

This is the final art for what has been referred to as the BIG commission. This was commissioned by Royce, who is as big a fan as I am of the Superman Family of characters. One of the ideas behind this was creating something like those bonus pin-up pages in the 80 page giants and some regular issues. You know, the page that would have a "snap shot" of the character(s) and maybe a "Best wishes from your pal, Superman" signed in the corner. I love those pages. When Royce approached me with this idea for a Christmas get together, I knew we had to make it happen.

Even after I presented the pencil version to Royce for approval, the piece took on a life of it's own. Demanding that extra things and people needed to be added, even if it wasn't in the original scope of the project. It was the right thing to do, as it adds to the depth of the history and the characters. At the risk of mixing my holidays, those little "easter eggs" that were added just made the piece more fun for me and I hope for Royce. And I hope for anyone who sees it.

Thanks again Royce for coming to me with this. It was a dream project.

This is ink on 14" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.

This is Post #1600

Harley Quinn - Digital Rough

Harley © DC Comics

Just a digital rough for an inked piece I will be doing this week in between other stuff. After I am done inking I will decide if I will add color or not.

This is Post #1599

Work In Progress The BIG Commission

Supergirl © DC Comics

Another quick update of the BIG commission. I am down to just the little details now. Putting it away for a day so I can look at it with fresh eyes. I think the reveal will be on Tuesday. That would be post #1600. Pretty cool to be on a milestone like that. :)

This is Post #1598