Illustration Style

II’ve been doodling all my life. In 2006 I purchased a Wacom tablet and started to explore digital doodling. Around the same time, I gave serious consideration to putting a comic together. Initially, everything I drew really looked – I don’t know…comic booky. I read books and tutorials where the standard was pencil to inks then inks to bright colors. As much as I love comics, I really don’t like the “voice” that traditional comic art speaks with. And that is the reason I wandered into a technique that many other comic creators do really well. I love using photos and heavy reference. I won’t lie; it does make some aspects of illustrating easier – but not all. Also, good photo referencing creates an aesthetic that critics won’t admit to or ignore completely. If you can pull it off, photo referencing gives your art specificity, consistency, and authenticity. When telling a story, the author may need something to be particular and identifiable. Speaking for myself, you don’t really want to see an interpretation born from what I think that “something” looks like. It may be off and you won’t recognize it. Everyone knows that to successful communication with images relies on recognition. But there are notions and information “communicated” in the detail – detail that photo reference provides.

The illustration below is actually my first character study of Hitt’s girlfriend. She’s based on my wife, Angela – plus sleeve tattoos and dreads. I used about five different references here. Hopefully, my ability to draw marries and hides parts of a photograph that I used only as a guide with correct anatomy. Listen, I can work out anatomy like any other decent artist – I just don’t have the time. Besides, looking at specific postures and poses bump the inspiration.

My art today is so much looser and grittier that when I started. The coloring technique is loose, too. If the artist is a computer and the finished art is the internet, then the technique that I’ve started is a super-fast connection. For me, methodically rendering anything would be dial-up. In a world where art lives in the moment – it has to be done fast. And let’s not forget that I operate a business that’s not drawing for a living. For me to take part in this, again, it has to be fast.

In the future, once the pages are getting churned out, I’ll post my process.