I have been in a rut. Really, for almost a year, but most acutely in the past few months since I quit smoking. And by rut I mean a full on depression in which I barely had the energy to do the work on my slate, never mind extra work to post here. I wasn't even sketching properly. Those are dark times.
Money has been really tight lately, so I opened up commissions for the first time in forever. I think it's been years since I accepted any. Not since my late cat was sick, and he died a few years ago at this point.
I feel a real fear when I open commissions. Truly. I'm not some big name guy. Not many people are out there, hoping for a "Larsen". (Unless it's an Erik.) This means commissions could be any old drawing a person was hoping to get. Sometimes these are fun. Like pets. I love painting pets, because I love painting animals. But sometimes these are nightmares. Like a request to draw their kids in portrait (oh no) or a request for twelve dozen OCs in a 5 x 7 piece (OH NO) or a rendition of a beloved dead relative (OH.NO.) I have limited my commissions to requests for this reason. Certainly, I can draw anything if my life depended on it. But not a realistic likeness of gam gam.
I didn't get any of that this time! This time I received a batch of really open and thoughtful (and a few very silly) prompts. I was honestly so happy, because I think this is exactly what I needed to drag me out of my rut.
At my core or cores, I don't think of myself as an artist. I am an illustrator. Give me an assignment and I will make it my own. I need parameters. I even give them to myself before I start to write or make a piece on my own. My imagination has no limits, and that is the problem. It will float into the ether, vibe out every vibe, run unbridled in a panoply of directions, and I am left with a horrific kind of choice paralysis which, coupled with my recent feelings of very very sad, leads me to do absolutely nothing.
Essentially, what I needed was a small batch of low stakes assignments.
SQUIDBOY
I prefer to not call out commissioners. I feel weird doing it. But Tim sent me in some old strips of his characters, so I imagine you'll see his name anyhow. I really liked this guy's big, bulbous head and that cat reminded me so much of a lot of early 90s cartoons I remember from my younger-years.
Original Squidboy comic, by Tim Canny
I wanted to start this with thumbs. I really love drawing backgrounds. They add so much to the storytelling of a piece. The problem with backgrounds is that they can lead to some strange and uncomfortable tangents if you don't give them a little planning. I also did a few doodles of Squidboy, to get a feel for his shapes (or, the shapes I would be using).
My biggest thoughts regarding the Characters and their Background was NOT completely centering the characters. That is very boring. Whenever I can, I try to design along diagonals. This is something you will find a lot of old school comic artists doing, though I think it is more of a subconscious approach to composition than it is an attempt at formality.
From These loose concepts, I moved on to pencils. My pencils are only kinda tight. There is always a level of refinement from this to the inking stage.
The final inks for this are done with a Preppy fountain pen (03) and Carbon Ink (waterproof/lightfast), which is a medium I use almost exclusively in my rough concept stage. I love Platinum pens. I don't know how their higher end nibs perform, but their cheap pens are my go-to for daily drawing. I thought it would be fun to do a finished piece in them. I also thought a monoline approach would be in keeping with the linear quality of the original characters. I did this on Fabriano Studio watercolor hot press paper. I have a big, thick pad of this for some reason. Functionally, it lies somewhere between a bristol and a hot press paper. I also used this for the final Astronaut painting, and I liked it a little less with water color. I had to be very attentive to my brush water capacity, but I'll get into those weeds a bit later in the post.
The splotchy boarder is the clear tape, which I had yet to remove when I took this photo.
Tim expressed that his characters often wore shirts depicting fake punk bands. He offered the Dark Banner suggestion (for Black Flag), and I thought turning the bars on their side would make a nice touch for the design.
ASTRONAUT
The Astronaut commission was an open prompt. I could do anything I wanted (oh no). And I did flounder for a bit. But I also recently rewatched Scavenger's Reign. Rather than do flat out fan art, I thought I would come up with my own character. I don't draw a lot of sci fi type stuff. I wanted to push in that direction for a piece.
My process for this wasn't much different. I'll spare you the iteration of my pencil, but here is the (holy god so messy) thumb I did, to get a feel for the nature of the space I wanted to create.
So clear and precise.
As I mentioned, the Fabriano Studio paper was a little on the frustrating side. I am comfortable enough with watercolor that I could handle the drifting washes, but idk that I would recommend it to a beginner. The cold press pads may give better control. But the hot press pads were very slick and the water wanted to rest on top of the paper for a long period of time, making thinner washes a bit harrowing to apply.
I built this up in 2 painting sessions, allowing the paint and paper to dry out completely in between working. This allows the washes applied later to retain more color definition, so they do not blend with the paint beneath, but lay over and blend with transparency instead of mixing. This is, essentially, the analog version of "multiply" layers. I added a little bit of gel pen at the end to clean up the highlights and add stars. I'm a dirty cheater.
Photos never do watercolor justice, so here is the final color corrected scan...
I cannot guarantee I will post every commission in here. I like to ask permission. Most likely I will post the best of the best later as a collection.
Thanks for reading!
NOTE! This post has been copied from a post on MY PATREON, with some editing. The original post is offered to free and paid memebers in its entirety. Consider following my Patreon for more frequent posts, behind the scenes posts, and sketchbook scans.