Work in Progress

What goes into making a piece of art? For me, I often create right out of my head with no other references. But most of the time it involves a great deal of research before putting that pencil (or Wacom pen) to paper/tablet.

I recently was commissioned to create a special portrait of a young woman in the style of a vintage WWII poster. This is a very specific style and era, and required lots of research to get myself familiar with these well-known types of posters. The next step was creating a sketch and layout that would highlight the subject as well as include other imagery that tied the piece together and brought it into the context. I’m working now on rendering a final piece and thought it would be fun to share my process. Here’s a snapshot from tonight, where you can see in the center the progress of the piece. Part of the image is still in linework with color, while the woman is midway through rendering in the painterly style. On either side are my references. It’s a lot of back and forth and cross-referencing, which can be tricky, but that’s what makes the finished piece so rewarding. It’s like baking a recipe with lots of different ingredients and see them come together in the end.