Welcome

Stage 01-05
Concept to Inked Line

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	Stage 01 – Thumbnail Concept Savage Cave Girl starts as a tiny thumbnail in my sketchbook, less than a couple inches wide. This is one of several thumbnails that I work on in an evening as I play around with ideas and concepts for several possible pieces. Working small allows me to make fast progress and concentrate on overall composition and anatomy, rather than getting wrapped up in details. At this stage it’s all about ideas.

	Stage 02 – Rough Thumbnail I trace the thumbnail and try several different refinements, sometimes at various sizes. For Savage Cave Girl I played with extending the anatomy downwards to get a better idea of her stance. I liked the overall verticality of the new thumbnail more than the original close up and decide to proceed with that instead. I scan and combine the new thumbnails, taking my favorite part of each (hair from one, face from another, body from yet another) and stitch them together to make a new thumbnail. At this stage the drawing is still only several inches wide and very rough.

	Stage 03 – Drawing The scan is blown up, printed out and transferred by light box to a sketchbook page (although sometimes I use Bristol). I work on turning the rough thumbnail anatomy into a more finished drawing. Reference is consulted for anatomy, clothing folds and other details.

	Stage 04 – Drawing Adjust I put the drawing away and work on other projects. A few days later I take it out and give it a fresh look. With some distance it’s easier to see what might need additional work or adjustments before scanning. For this piece I decide to adjust just a few things, such as the lips, and then scan. In Photoshop I push the curve of her back and hair just a bit more and move a few things (Earring, knife blade and back arm and shoulder) before proceeding. The point of this step is to push those final details of the drawing a bit more with cut and paste, instead of going back to the drawing board. In the old days I would have used a photocopier to do this kind of stuff.

	Stage 05 – Ink I load up the pencil image in Painter (Ver 9.5) at the size I want the final piece (in this case 300DPI, 12.5 by 16 Inches). I have Painter create a quick clone (File/QuickClone). This opens a duplicate copy of the document and sets the original document as the source for cloning. I "Select All" in the duplicate and delete everything, to give me a blank slate of transparency. I select an ink pen nib (Scratchbaord Tool Fine, Size 4.3 to 6, min size 15%) and begin inking the image with pure black. Using keyboard shortcuts I can turn on and off the light box feature, which makes the original source image appear in the cloned duplicate document as a light ghost image. By using Painter’s excellent rotation feature, I rotate the image in real time and ink all those pesky curves that just can’t be done easily in Photoshop. Notice that I leave most of the interior details blank, and concentrate on the lines that separate the major forms. I’ll even be getting rid of some of this line later. The hair and loincloth are inked on separate layers to make it easier to later adjust or move them.

Okay, let's move on to the next page and start painting.