"Google Maps" + Process Short

Time for another tutorial of sorts... I partially documented the work-in-progress of this demo panel (similar to previous process posts like "Ruminate," "Cabin Fever" and "Smokey the Bear") mostly doing screen grabs of the shading-in step done on the computer in Photoshop, and uploaded the 2-minute short to the YouTube channel (see link below).

There are are a few glimpses of the initial doodle scanned from the sketchbook, then the penciled panel on Bristol board (Strathmore 400 series), and then the line art inked in by dip-pen (Hunt 102 nib + Sennelier India ink) and lastly, the watercolor wash variation on the original. As usual, there's debate over which variation works best: on the one hand I have been steadily including raw sketches as the "finished" piece and publishing it with minor tweaks, as an argument can be made for preserving the spontaneity + relative rawness of the doodle. On the other hand, I do so enjoy the cumulative stages in penciling + inking, refining it on the fly, watching it evolve into a more cohesive + effective panel. Then again, the final treatment with wash more often than not results in a combination of the two aforementioned aesthetics: refined + deliberative linework juxtaposed against looser application of value. Either way I wind up with several options in the end, which means triple the work, or I'm backed up by triple redundancy.

Bonus trivia: all this was inspired by a homemade sign posted just down the street by an irate neighbor who obviously was frustrated at the inadvertent trespassing by migrating herds of tourists seeking UAF's Large Animal Research Station (aka "the muskox farm"). Guessing there's either a few missing details on Google's end - which obviously happens a fair amount in Alaska given our areas of vast ie unmapped wilderness, or, more likely - the technology's fine, it's just operator error.

Due to the inherent complexity of the design (comparative to other, simpler cartoons) this panel took a bit more deliberative dinking with than usual. Or, in the studio vernacular: Delineating objects in the fore/mid/background with successively lighter line weights so as to emphasize depth, in conjunction with using linear perspective, foreshortening and overlapping of objects. Then, on to crayons utilizing value to further enhance the composition through contrast and gradation for volume.

Here's a direct link to the YouTube video - enjoy + thanks for watching!