Saturday, January 30, 2010

A step-by-step COWBOY COW-TOON:

The latest issue of Boys' Quest magazine hits newsstands Feb. 1st featuring one of my illustrations on the cover. The theme of the issue was "Cowboys" and the whole process took about 2 days (a big chunk of the time was waiting for the magazine editor to approve my rough). Above is the printed cover and below is my original thumbnail sketch from my Official Sketchbook (a .99 cent notebook from CVS).


Below is the rough sketch on a "mock cover sheet" supplied by the magazine which I emailed to the editor. So the main character would get more space, I removed the cacti's cowboy hats and, although I LOVE to draw cacti, one of them became a horse!


After the rough was approved, I drew the finished illustration below lightly in pencil first and then inked it with rapidographs and Pigma Micron pens on Strathmore 500 series Bristol Plate (it's super smooth and never ever bleeds).


Then I scanned the ink work into Photoshop to colorize it. Quick & easy: I just filled the selected areas with color and used the brush tool to create highlights & shadows. The finished is below!
If you like step-by-step illustration tutorials, you should check out this blog: http://bobjinx.blogspot.com/ by the talented Bob Flynn!

11 comments:

Jason Curtis said...

Wow, this is great Chris. I love seeing all the behind-the-scenes work, along with the final product. Very informative and fun.

Thanks for sharing.

Chris Sabatino said...

Thanks, Jason! I love to see how other artists work, too. I love that "image info" tag you have after your work on your blog...I was enjoying your artwork again this morning....so cool...I could spend my day on your blog!!

David said...

This is awesome Chris. I like seeing the progression of the idea. The first sketch the cacti had cowboy hats, then on the cover sheet the cacti lose their hats and the dog gained one, to the finished illustration where only the cowboy has a hat. Good stuff!

Chris Houghton said...

Great stuff here Chris! The magazine looks like a fun one too. ;) Glad you like Bob Flynn's work as well- he's one heck of a guy! ;D

Take care,
Chris

Jason Curtis said...

Ah shucks Chris, thanks so much.

Tomás Serrano said...

Chris, It´s fantastic you share how you did it: tools, sketches with changes... and I like your style as well!

Kevin Spear said...

Great to see how you work, Chris. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I've enjoyed seeing your work in past mailings. You do great, fun work.

Chris Sabatino said...

Hey Jason, David, Chris, Tomas & Kevin!
Thanks to all of you for stopping by and leaving such kind comments. Means a lot coming from such a talented group! Thanks!!

Bill White said...

Nice post Chris! I would love to see a step-by-step of your coloring process.

I think you already knew that, though.

Bob Flynn said...

Glad you started up a blog, Chris! And you're already on a roll with your process post. Keep it up! And thanks for the shout-out :)

Rob Bodnar said...

Great drawings! Cool! Thanks for the kind words!