CARTOON ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Rough thumbnails

The most useful way to start an illustration is by creating some thumbnails. This allows us to better define the composition and not lose our time on details. I love to make very loose lines with pen or pencil for this so I can create more sketches quickly.

2 The sketch

This is my favourite part of the process. To me, it doesn’t matter how many sketches I have to do until I find the right one. This is where I start to define my scene, and I can add some details before making the final outlines. Sometimes I feel drawings can lose part of their essence after cleaning up; that’s why I love sketches.

3 Final image

This is where I define the outlines and add the atmosphere with powerful colours and lighting. As this is a sci-fi image I can use highly contrasted colours for the palette. The balance of colours is very important to create a focus point and light source. Also, the expressions of the characters must be recognisable and striking.