Lost Luggage

Above is a recently completed illustration for an as-of-yet unannounced publication. Like most of my illustrations, it contains references and call-outs to things in my own life as well as inside jokes that are probably only funny or interesting to me. The work is supposed to appear in black and white…

… but was drawn with pen, pencil, black and colored ink as well as white gouache. One of the things I am experimenting with is to try to preserve as much of the original drawing as possible. In the past, I would draw something in pencil or non-repro blue, then ink over the pencil drawing, then erase the pencil or deselect the non-repro blue in the scan in order to “clean up” the image (i.e.: get rid of the original drawing). Traditionally, this is what most illustrators have done. But I have often found that the drawing under the finished inks are frequently as interesting as the finished piece… so now I am experimenting with a new process where I do a lot less erasing or hiding of the original marks…

By comparing this original scan of the pencil to the finished piece, you can see that the final ink (above) has a lot in common with the original pencil but has additional layers of tone and darker darks. I’ve done a little bit or erasing on the final, but, as you can see, the underlying pencil imparts a lot of shadow and texture and shape to the final — the drawing tells the story of its own creation.