The Act of Creation: My Process for Illustrations

As an artist, I'm fascinated with the creation process. The actual process of creating art is much more important and fulfilling to me than the end result. Not that the end result is unimportant, but once I've created a piece of work, it is usually no longer "mine" as most of the time I'm working on something for someone else. But the process of creating is an incredibly intimate, seductive process for me. I tend to get very engrossed in what I'm doing to the point that the outside world doesn't exist, just me and the process.

At any rate, I thought that it might be cool to share with you all a bit of that process. I don't think I can define much of the experience as it is more mental than just the physical act of creation, but I'll do my best.

I don't have a studio, I'm very much a dining room table creator. It's a good space and I figure that even if I had a studio, I'd probably be using this space a lot for my work.

Often for a somewhat complex piece, I'll pull out one of my sketchbooks and do a very rough composition thumbnail. These are very rough, often they look like a bunch of squigles and lines but they help me determine action and placement. They are done very quickly and lightly in pencil. I've scanned this one in and adjusted the brightness settings so you can see it.

Sometimes I listen to music, but often I'm so into what I'm doing that I don't. Frequently I'm not alone. Bear likes to work along side me sometimes. Another reason I like the dining room table ;). Drawing can be such a solitary activity, it is nice to have company.

I like to use Strathmore Bristol Board for my work. It is nice and sturdy and takes the ink well. As you can see, I tend to have a stack of books at the table. Most of the times I'm not using them as a direct reference but more to set the mood (Hence the Art of Hellboy book and the Art of Al Williamson and Frazetta). Osprey Press has some great historical books that I like to use to reference armor and clothing.

Sometimes I "finish" my pencils and will spot the areas that I want to black out. Other times, I'll just dive in with the inks and won't fully render the pencils. I like to use mechanical pencils with .5mm lead.

I use Speedball super black India ink on my work. I use both a crow quill pen and sable hair brushes. I do tend to prefer inking with a brush. I LOVE my sable hair brushes!

I can digitally color myself, but my wife Daisey is MUCH faster at it than I am so at this stage I scan in the work and hand it off to her for the digital wizardry. At this point, the piece is ready to be sent to the publisher (in this case Expeditious Retreat Press for their Advance Adventures line). There it takes on another life as part of a larger whole. I always get a thrill out of seeing the end product ;).

At point, I sit back and hope you all enjoy the end results. It is a tremendous amount of fun for me to create these images. Sometimes it is a slower process than I'd like, but it is always a pleasure when I can find the spare time to bring these scenes to life from the wonderfully penned works by the highly creative and imaginitive OSR community members. I hope you enjoy this post and that it gives some insight into my processes. Happy gaming!!