July 23, 2016
As a nice break from work and school, I began to write a book. It started as a goofy hobby that I would do on the weekends or in my free time, but I soon realized that I could also draw the characters from the book to better visualize it. From there, I began to illustrate them on my computer. That is where we are now.
To create the characters, I first find a model who matches the character in my head. From there, I find a photo of them, or at least their face with the emotion I want, and import it into photoshop. If the model isn’t in the right clothes or pose, I will find another photo with the correct attributes and mesh the two images together while maintaining shadows and motion if there are multiple characters in one image. Once everything is correct, I bring that new image into illustrator and make layer upon layer of vectors. Some of these characters have over 2,000 vectors layers. Some may see this as pointless, but it has drastically improved my pen tool skills, helped me to realize the importance of organizing my layers, and boosted my creativity.