Pepper

So for fun (and for a chance to do work for myself) I joined in on a sketch challenge recently. The topic was Iron Man, so I decided that I would draw Pepper Pots in her own suit.

I was recently asked about some of my steps, so I thought that with this illustration I would take better note of how I come to the finished product. Mind you I'm no expert and I'm still experimenting, learning, and basically trying to find the best methods.

So for my first step I usually look at other artists to get inspired, not hard to do since I do that almost always. Then I try on my own to doodle and come up with some poses and ideas. Then to improve on those rough sketches I look at references. Below are some really rough sketches, and some of the references that I looked at. As you can see I ended up combining two poses.

 

 

stock image credits: shutterstock.com, faestock.deviantart.com

For the next step I took my final pose and started drawing over it just to get some better lines to work with. I also started focusing more on the characters face, I also decided early own that I wanted Pepper to look like her movie character played by Gweneth Paltrow. 

 

After a while of drawing I decided that Pepper looked annoyingly stiff, so I pushed her upper body forward a little.

Then always referring back to more reference, I keep drawing. (I also try to take breaks where I step away from the computer and the drawing. After a while of staring at the same drawing I tend not to see my mistakes anymore).

Next I take my cleaned up lines and put them to the top most layer, turn down the opacity, and turn the layer to multiply. Under that layer I start filling in the parts with color, and trying to make sure I keep all the parts separate, for example a different layer for the head, body, hair, etc.

Next I just start working out the details in different areas. In no particular order, just wherever I feel like focusing on. In this instance I started with the face and hair. I just keep going adding more detail as I go along, and always trying to keep everything on its own layer.

Finally, I try to polish the illustration and make adjustments where needed. I adjust things like the hue and saturation, the curves, add an unsharp mask, and use the liquify tool to fix or distort where needed—then PRESTO, it's done.