Thumbnail sketch.
My client requested an illustration of a Mexican Bandito. Of course the first thing to pop into my mind was a favorite childhood cartoon mascot called Frito Bandito.
And as the rabbit trails of my mind work I had that theme song stuck in my head the whole week, humming it as I drew my art. But I digress.
Rough Sketch.
The client actually sent me one of the tools and like they do on American Chopper I had to create a custom die for the sticker based on the tools casing. My creative challenge was to provide the requested theme in a very restrictive format, so I drew out my art with the final shape of the sticker as my guide.
Refined Sketch.
Usually I draw and redraw until I get exactly what I want to build. I don't like leaving a lot of guess work in the build stage of my creative process. It just wastes time. Since this art is symmetrical I only have to draw half of it. Digital FTW.
Building Vectors.
Once I scan in my refined sketch I simply start building my vector shapes. For more about vector build methods and plugins that make it easier just visit my tutorial web site and you'll find all kinds of information on how to control your bezier curves like a pro.
I draw all my art out before I hit the computer. If you can get into a good creative habit of working this way you'll see a huge improvement in your work and it'll prevent you from becoming a Tooler.
Base Art.
With all my shapes built and fused together via the Pathfinder Palette I'm ready to work out how I'll model my art with more details.
Shading.
I'm a digital artist but my creative process goes back and forth between digital and analog. So when it comes to shading I print out my base art and grab a pencil. 2B or not 2B, that is the pencil!
Building the Shading.
Once I've drawn out how I want the shading and highlights to be handled. I scan it back in and use it as my guide to build the vector shapes.
Details of Illustration.
Once I have the shading resolved I visually study the art and determine other areas to drop in darker shades and highlights to create depth and focus attention within my design. I also start to balance my color palette and experiment with tonal values until it feels right.
It's not always a visual thing, sometimes it just has to feel right. Call it a creative intuition but I depend on it a lot. It's the one intangible aspect of my creative process that is hard to define.
Art in Context.
This is the actual tool the sticker will be applied too. It'll wrap the front of the casing. During the process I'm printing the art out and if time permits putting it aside and looking at it with fresh eyes later and making any necessary changes that improve the art.
Final Artwork.
This shows the final art for the Tool a little larger. You can see this art re-purposed for other usages here.
14 comments:
Another delicious post!
The shading/lighting part is what makes it stand out!
Yeah the shading is killer. The line art ain't to shabby itself :)
Curious why you don't just add your shading to a layer below the line art, sandwiched between the color and the line art? Less need to be so precise where the shading meets the line art.
great stuff!
George,
Your right I could do it that way but I'm just anal and it would bug me. My buddy Paul Howalt builds all his art the way you describe and it's fine.
Doing it this way also means when I hand off the digital files there is less they can screw up too via layering. But mainly it's nothing more than preference.
I'm kind of MONKish this way.
You're the best Von. Looks great!
Yeah it took me a while to allow my OCD self to do the layering method :)
Big deal! Thanks for the lesson!
mmmmh not cool, you should know that not every mexican is a moustache-wielding-fat-mean-spiritd idiot... I expected a lot more form you, a gringo is a gringo after all, huh?.
Salvador,
Fat? He's not fat, his head is wide and the only reason for that proportion is the limited space I had to use for the product itself. You know that.
I can't control what pretext you want to read into this art man. I was asked by my client to draw a Bandito character and that's what I did.
Should I draw the character to look like Mario Lopez? Would that satisfy you? Would that even read as a "Bandito?" NO.
There is no nefarious alternate meaning trying to be implied by my artwork period the end.
This art in no way represents Mexican people in general either, that would be you implying it from your own prejudice. It certainly isn't my opinion.
BTW, my good friend and fellow illustrator from Mexico city loved this art. Because he didn't feel obligated to view it from a narrow mind set.
this is incredible.
Salvador, are you kidding me!?...come on.
Nice work.
Nice work, Von.
In addition to Salvador's accusations, I suspect that there's some sort of hidden end of the world conspiracy theory you are propogating in that art too, correct?
Fantastic my man..fantastic! Oh BTW, I'm reading through Leslie Cabarga's Logo, Font, & Lettering Bible. Thanks for the suggestion.
Salvador, take off your goober goggles dude. Seriously?
Von-
Your Bandito is Neato!!!
If Von's client had asked him to simply create a Mexican character and he came up with this, then your accusation would hold water. But the client specifically asked for a Mexican Bandito. It's the same if the client had asked for a African-American Pimp or White Texan character. Although they may not be representatives of the African-American race or the Texan respectively, they are specific characters.
It all comes down to intent. I'm sure Von's intent was not to be demeaning. As far as the client is concerned, I can't vouch for that. I just hope they're not planning on presenting that nail gun to their only Mexican worker because then we're talking bad news.
Then again, you did say "a gringo is a gringo after all" so I'm guessing you still have a lot of learning to do and these comments will fall on deaf ears.
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