Regular readers of the blog know that I've got a series of map drawing tutorials, have been commissioned to do cartography for a few companies over the years and have struggled away with creating a comic book and generating imagery for my own games. I've tried a few different styles over the years, using a variety of media, including pen-and-ink, paint, pencils and digital media. I started playing with Photoshop back in the 90s, and have been experimenting with using it as a part of my artistic process ever since.
I've played with algorithmic image generation as a tool, and have tried to push what it can do, but always seem to come back to hand drawn elements. I like the visceral feel of touching pigment to paper, the feel of not knowing how a technique is going to respond, and the idea of going with the flaw when something might not follow the expected path.
I've had artwork stolen, I've seen my own pieces earn other people money. I've collaged ogether images from my own photography and stock photography from the web. I've seen algorithmic imagery generate stuff similar to what I do, and I understand that people can often point and click to produce imagery that looks similar to another person's work. I've had pieces that have pre-dated "AI" artwork called out for being produced by AI, so I guess it's kind of expected that more recent works would have been called out as AI too.
When I've described my process, a few people have been interested in what I do. Especially with the "Bustle in your Hedgerow" imagery since that game has just been released more formally. I usually don't take photos of WIPs, or archive the creative process, but I did manage to find some progress shots of the front cover that I'm using for the book.
So here's a peak behind the curtain...
It begins with a sketch.
Actually, it usually begins with a dozen sketches (or more). Often with two or three of those sketches contributing elements to the next step of the process. I had some ideas for the scarecrow game.
The game was always going to be based on the lyrics of Led Zeppelin, so we needed a face that gave an impression of Robert Plant... but it was also going to be about revolution and danger, so I had the impression of a Guy Fawkes mask in the back of my head too.
Refinement gradually worked toward the hybrid of these ideas, and with forays into something vampiric or feline, because the scarecrows conducted their adventure at night ideas started to coalesce. The final face didn't really match those early ideas, but I feel like it still gives echoes of them.
Once a few pictures are created, I compile them together in Photoshop where I ca scale and tweak the various bits into a rough composite of what I'm aiming for. I don't have any WIP shots of that bit for this image, nor the next bit where I get a digital projector and in this case project the image onto a sheet of scraperboard.
I fell in love with using scaperboard a few years ago, with it's strong contrast and distinct visual style. It wasn't always cheap to get hold of, but I've recently found packets of it in the art supply aisles of various discount shops. Here's me using it on another picture to show how it works...
You might be able to see a video of it's use here (however, my facebook p[rofile is locked for work, so maybe it won't work)... https://www.facebook.com/reel/10159035387674604
Either way, I generate a graphite pencil sketch on the black background, indicating the areas that I want to be scraping away. Here's a few photos of the black-and-white image being revealed.
Then we scan it back into Photoshop, and since I really want this picture to have a greyscale tone to it, and a gritty, earthy texture, it was all about spray brushes and pulling in inspiration from stock photography of storms and lightning...
I was never going to get the storms to look natural, butthe impression of a storm is all I need. I'm also starting to lay out the page at this stage, noting where titles and works might go.
I don't know where I got the various flourishes and scrollwork from, they've been sitting in my computer stock imagery files for years, maybe even decades, and they get pulled out every now and then for various pieces of work. This felt like a good project to add them in to.
Layers, of greyscale shading, multiplying layers together, occasionally screening a layer to get some subtle highlights. Then we start adding in some scrolls to function as textboxes.
Like the baroque flourishes, I'm not sure where these originally came from, and I've used them many time over the years. A bit more shading gives them some more depth. Everything is starting to come together.
Now one of the fun parts of the process, the search for fonts. I've probably got a few hundred fonts on my computer, and where possible I try to use ones that are public domain. Otherwise I'll throw some money at a designer if they've got a cool font that I love.
I twist and turn the words with various distortion tools in Photoshop until the words fit the scrollwork banners or just have a good vibe that feels right to me. A couple of extra flourishes fill the gaps.
I could do more, but it's already starting to look a bit busy.
That's basically how the cover was created. Other images in the booklet follow a similar (but often less intensive) process, because they are often spot illustrations of sitting in the background with other elements of the page designed to take the spotlight.
If anyone's interested in other artistic techniques I been working on, I'll share them too.
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