My Illustration Planning Process

The above illustration is the header art for my Facebook fan page. In this post I thought I would show you part of my planning process for an illustration. I have a rather unorthodox manner of working out an illustration. I tend to make things up as a go along. Any thought that comes to me, I pencil it out in the side panel for consideration.

All of the notations that you see around the final ink line drawing demonstrate that process. You can see that my inked title lettering on the right side ended up on the cutting room floor, along with most of the other notations above and below the illustration.

After I was satisfied with the contents of the illustration, I scanned it and painted it in Photoshop using my Wacom Cintiq. I'm so glad that early on, even before art school, I worked at teaching myself how to paint. I've done more than my share of simple line and wash art, but it's so much more fun to paint, with or without the support of an ink line.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles?

Earthing Odyssey

Have you heard of "earthing", or "grounding" yet? If you follow health trends like I do (I write and illustrate a syndicated newspaper column called Health Capsules), you may have already heard of this new phenomenon that's not really new. Earthing has been a natural part of human behavior for many centuries, yet it has been rediscovered and practiced in recent years for its numerous health benefits.

Because it was such a beautiful fall day in the Pacific Northwest today, I decided to ride my motorcycle to one of my favorite places where I write and draw, the dining area of the Safeway store in Orting, Washington. After I finished drawing my Health Capsules, I continued on toward Mount Rainier.

Several miles up the road I pulled over, parked my bike, then resumed my journey..."barefoot", on the scenic Orting-South Prairie Trail, which follows along the banks of the Carbon River. Going barefoot is the essence of earthing. But earthing doesn't work if you walk on asphalt, so I stayed on the grassy area beside the paved trail. I might add, as a neophyte to earthing, my feet don't handle cold ground in the late fall very well. Fortunately, you can also earth with moccasins on. I plan to buy a pair of moccasins.

The idea behind earthing: The earth could be described as an "electron sponge". It soaks up electrons from the sun's rays and from lightning strikes. All living things, including humans, require electrons for survival. Without them there would be no life on earth.

We get electrons in our daily diet from antioxidants, but we require more electrons than just those that we receive from our diet. We humans were designed to naturally take in electrons through the bottom of our feet by way of direct barefoot contact with the earth. But a few decades ago, when rubber-sole and plastic-sole shoes came on the scene, we lost contact with the earth. Rubber and plastic insulates us from the earth's electrons. We lost the benefits that we had derived from direct contact with the earth.

Walking barefoot on a daily basis offers a host of benefits. Among them: thinner, faster-flowing blood, relief from pain, lower blood pressure, calmer mood, and much more. It has even been called the most important health discovery ever. But what if you aren't able to walk barefoot through the winter with three feet of snow on the ground? There are ways of deriving the benefits from earthing while remaining indoors. For more information on earthing, indoors and out, watch this gripping documentary, called Grounded. Right now it's free on this web site, but it might not be free much longer. The DVD will cost $25:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/19/grounded-documentary.aspx?e_cid=20131019Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131019Z1 

Another information source on grounding: http://www.townsendletter.com/May2010/earthing0510.html

Refueling the Tindenburg

CAN YOU FIND? A dozing dog? A pig? A drippy hose? A curious cat? A pair of sunglasses? A man who lost his hat? Kilroy? 

The year is 2192. Post-Apocalyptic North America would become known as the "Post-Tin Age". With automobile and airplane manufacturing at a standstill, transportation began to reemerge in the form of hand-made contraptions, patched together with rusty spare parts and scrap tin. The Tindenburg, or "Tin Zep One" was such an airship.

The Tindenburg was named in honor of a German dirigible from a past age: The LZ-129 Hindenburg crashed and burned in 1937, bringing to an end the Golden Age of Zeppelins, which flourished in the early 20th Century.

The Tindenburg lead the way in the revival of airships. Other zeppelins would follow until tin zeppelins dominated the Post-Apocalyptic skies.

My first Monster Safari fans

This is the first group of kids to draw from my Monster Safari book. Hopefully, in the years ahead there will be many more. The woman, who received the book as a gifts, shared it with her tutoring group, above. These Monster Safari fans live is Ontario, California. 

Progress on my Airship Fueling Painting

Now I've completed the fueling port structure and the dwellings on the right in my Airship Fueling painting. I'm trying to keep the colors in the low-value range to lend a post-apocalyptic tone to the painting. Its not natural for my work to have a grim, post-apocalyptic tone since I'm from the wacky Mad Magazine school of art. 

If I would have been working traditionally, I would have had to scrap the painting and start over. Three of the horizontal support planks along the bottom of the fueling platform were straight horizontal, which threw off the perspective. Somehow I missed this oversight in the preliminary sketch. But I was able to cut them out in Photoshop and slant them upward, and seamlessly repair the perspective error.

Next I'll paint the structures in the bottom center, then the airships in the background. I'll leave the "centerpiece", the foreground airship for last. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to put on the fuel tank in the upper left. Still open for suggestions. 

Sky background for Airship Refueling painting

This is the first color application for my Airship Refueling painting. I thought that painting the sky to achieve the effect I was looking for would take considerable time. It took about five minutes. You get kind of spoiled with Photoshop and the Wacom setup. You spray until you are satisfied. If you're not satisfied, there's always good ol' "control z".

Contrast that with the airbrush days. I did many illustrations using an airbrush. With this tool, you're working without a net. One false move and you may have to start the entire illustration over again. Been there, done that.

Next you'll see the airship refueling station rendered in color with the appropriate shading tones.

Have you seen my other blog, The Trowbridge Chronicles? 

Here's the final line art for my Airship Refueling painting. Because the line art always looks so flat, it's always a pleasure to start applying color. The depth and dimension of the color always brings the image to life. You can see that I added the buildings in the bottom center. It was still in pencil in the last version. But I'm still up in the air about what will go onto the fuel tank, center left. It seems like there needs to be an appropriate name or graphic there. I still feel like Sub-Standard Oil is a little too tacky. Let me know soon if you have any brilliant ideas.