Time Lapse Vacation

I wanted to share some of the process that I use when creating an illustration. This one is titled 'Vacation' since I am off on holiday tomorrow :) 

Here is a time lapse video of my basic practise, I sketch first in pencil (H5) and then shade with Chinese black ink onto watercolour paper. I prefer to work in either A3 or A4 size. I build layers of shading and then add some additional line work in pencil and black fine line pen. 

Once I am happy with the basic sketch, I scan the raw drawing to Photoshop and begin to digitally edit it. First,  I tidy it up a little and overlay a gradient layer to add some colour depth to the black ink (which makes such a good base for edits):

Next, I scan in some additional elements such as text, foliage etc that I can use in the composition. I can spend a fair bit of time playing in Photoshop with different effects and layers, which is why I love to use it as a medium, I have been using Photoshop for over a decade and it continues to surprise me with new little tricks I accidentally learn or read about. Everyone uses this tool in a different way and I love the spectrum of results that can be produced. 

This is the final result of this piece: 

Let me know what you think and what else you'd like to know! 

Time to go get my tan on, see you next week :)