Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Breakfast Club (Frankenberry)

Frankenberry


One of the ways I'm hoping to do more posts on this blog is to do little things between the bigger projects I'm currently working on.  While doodling, I thought it would be amusing to do a re-imagining of the Monster Cereal characters; in this case Frankenberry as a literal (literary?) Frankenstein's Monster.  

I didn't bother with a reference picture in this case (and it may show), but I think it has an almost Fritz Lang sort of feel to it.  

Here's the process for those who are interested....

* * * * *


STEP ONE:  I used a mixture of gesso and size (glue) on a 5" x 7-1/2" piece of Crescent 102 illustration board.  Then I drew Frankenberry with charcoal and carbon pencil.  The gesso/glue mixture had a good tooth to it so the charcoal worked well.  Also, you could really lift off the charcoal if needed and erase almost back to the white underneath.  In this case, it was small enough to throw on my scanner and import it into PhotoShop.

* * * * *


STEP TWO:  In PhotoShop, I created a new layer set to "Multiply", which will save the line work and shading while overlaying color over top.  I did a simple linear gradient from a light magenta on the bottom, to a darker magenta on the top to match the lighting from below.

* * * * *


STEP THREE:  Next, I did some highlights with white and light magenta on the gradient layer, pushed a few shadows with a dark magenta on a separate "Multiply" layer, and a few little touch-ups and final highlights on the top layer set to "Normal".  I figured it was good enough and here it is.

* * * * *

This was done with charcoal and carbon pencil on a 5" x 7-1/2" Crescent 102 illustration board, then colored digitally in PhotoShop.

.

2 comments:

  1. That is wonderful... and thanks for sharing your methods and materials. I can't wait for your take on 'Fruitbrute' or your portrait of Captain Crunch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. THANKS for the kind words and I'm glad you like the process information! I, too, always like to know how pieces of art were created, including all the boring "First, I used this, then I did that"... Besides, all that extra typing makes my blog look more substantial than it really is. ;-)

    Next up for THE BREAKFAST CLUB is "Booberry", followed by "Count Chocula", then "Yummy Mummy", and lastly "Fruitbrute". I am debating how many other breakfast mascots I want to do. Cap'n Crunch may be a good one. I thought about Toucan Sam and the Trix Bunny, but I'm not all that good at drawing animals (yet). Oh, I think I'll definitely have to get around to Quisp.

    Thanks, again! :-)

    ReplyDelete