MY ILLUSTRATION PROCESS

when inspiration strikes, use it

Sometimes inspiration crashes right into your lap. Sometimes you aren’t fast enough to catch it. Sometimes it looks like a meal between friends in Japan where you can’t stop shouting “You NEED to try this!” with your mouth full of egg sandwich.

My favorite illustrations are ones that are inspired by my memories of friends, places, or experiences. Memories can be documented in lots of ways, in this case it looked like turning my friends into mice.

From head to paper

An idea pops into my head every so often, but that’s a dangerous place for an idea to live. One distraction and that idea is gone. Poof!

So, good or bad, I write the idea down. Even if it’s bad, it’s a starting point. Maybe I’ll ask myself a few questions to expand on it more.

Once that initial idea is down on the page, it’s shaped naturally through a number of sketches. During each iteration, the sketch is refined until I’m happy with it. I then trace it on to watercolor paper with a lightbox.

THE PAINTING PROCESS

My medium of choice lately is gouache. I love the vibrancy and texture of the paint.

Mixing colors, balancing colors, putting down layers of paint, it’s all so fun to me! I love this part of the process, even though a piece can take me anywhere from 2-12 hours in total to complete.

On top of the paint, I love to layer colored pencils, pastels, graphite, or marker to add more detail and texture.

A list of my all-time favorite art supplies can be found here.

Finishing Touches

I scan the painting into my laptop at a high resolution (usually 400 DPI) and finish the painting digitally on Photoshop.

Sometimes it’s fine as is, and other times the colors need to be adjusted a little, or some details need to be added. I love using digital tools to supplement my work, or if I’m on the go and can’t pack a studio full of paints.

And that’s it. My process might vary a bit from project to project or as I experiment with new mediums, but the core steps remain constant: inspiration, idea, painting, editing.

Thank you!