New Illustrated Book Out!!

(ENG) At last I'm able to make this post! My second publication, a Children's book I recently illustrated, is out in stores (Only in the Basque Country... for now ;P). The name of the book is "Aurrera, Kakarraldo!" (Go, Beettle Go!) and it's written by Javi Cillero. You can find more information about it as well as order it online here. Bellow are a few of the illustrations in the book (without text). I did all the drawings in pencil and colored them digitally. As always, questions, comments and critiques are more than welcome. Thanks!

(EUS) Azkenean post hau egiteko gai naiz! Dagoeneko dendetan dago nire bigarren argitarapena: duela gutxi ilustratu dudan haur ipuina. Liburuaren izenburua "Aurrera, Kakarraldo!" da eta Javi cillero-rena da testua. Hemen liburuari buruzko informazio gehiago aurki dezakezu eta baita erosi ere. Behean liburuko ilustrazio batzuk topa ditzazkezu (testurik gabe). Marrazketa guztia arkatzez egin nuen eta margoketa digitalki. Beti bezala, galderak eta iritziak ongi etorriak dira. Mila esker!

(ESP) Por fín puedo realizar este post! Ya está en las tiendas mi segunda publicación: un cuento infantil que ilustré a principios de este año. El libro se titula "Aurrera Kakarraldo" (Adelante, Escarabajo!) y ha sido escrito por Javi Cillero. Para ver la ficha tecnica del libro o comprarlo haz click aqui. Abajo se pueden ver algunas de las ilustraciones del libro (sin el texto). Todo el trabajo de dibujo lo realicé a lapiz mientras que el color fue aplicado digitalmente. Como siempre, cualquier pregunta, comentario o criíica son más que bienvenidos. Muchas gracias!

(Clic to enlarge - Klikatu haunditzeko - Clicar para ampliar)

Ninja Droid

(Pencil, Marker, Pen and Photoshop)

Post-Apocalyptic Kid _ 01 - STEPS

(ENG) Bellow you will find a description of each of the 7 steps I followed using Photoshop to tonally render Post-Apocalyptic Kid 01. This was a concept piece where the objective was to bring the original drawing to a level of effective rendering in a reasonable amount of time: 90 minutes approx.

STEP #1: The original pencil drawing is scanned and processed: Levels are used to obtain the desired level of contrast of the line work, as well as the intensity of the blacks and whites of the whole image. The layer that contains the line work is set to Multiply mode.

STEP #2: On a layer bellow, a base tone of gray is carefully applied to the entire drawing. This will work as a base silhouette helping us build the rest of the tonal rendering on top of it, without worrying about painting anywhere outside the figure and hence, saving us time.

STEP #3: This step consists on creating the local base tones for different parts of the figure. When deciding which tones to apply, think of contrast and harmony: placing the darks and light tones against each other will help differentiate the elements of the figure and make it easily readable, even when you squint your eyes (A chess-board is a very simple and geometric example of this). I believe I used 4 local base tones but 3 could work as well. Another reason why I do this is so that the shadows that will later be applied affect each area differently: The darker parts will have darker shadows, the lighter parts brighter highlights, etc. This local tones are applied in different clipping mask layers, all subordinated to the silhouette layer.

STEP #4: Light and Shadows. In two layers above the previous clipping masks (I usually place the shadow layer under the light layer), a low opacity brush is used to describe volumes withing the form by creating lighted areas and shadowy ones. Being consistent with the placement of the lights and shadows will give a sense of where the light source is located relative to the figure, aiding to its three-dimensional effect and its existence in an environment. However, note that, since the goal here is to render the image in a comic "book cover" type of style, the line work is kept all the way through, which helps the image hold together and saves us a lot of rendering time. Consequently though, the final look will never be extremely painterly or sculptural, for that can only be achieved with a total absence of line.

STEP #5: Cast Shadows. On a layer above the previous ones but still below the line work, a solid black cast shadow projected on certain areas of the body and the ground. This layer is set to Strong Light mode and to an opacity of 50% in this particular case. The cast shadow on the ground is achieved by distorting a copy of the silhouette and modifying it until it becomes a sound projection of the figure.

STEP #6: Highlights and textures. Various texture brushes are used to quickly add details and richness to the piece. You can easily turn photographs of textures such as scratches or ink splatters into brushes by turning them into black and white and then saving it as a brush under the edit menu. The ground plane is also created using a photograph and distorting its perspective until it matches the virtual ground plane on which the character is standing. Highlights such as the one in the kid's headphones are created with a soft white brush at 70% opacity on a layer above the line work. This will create a shine effect, since the light will burn over the line.

STEP #7: Final look. In this case I added certain typographies as graphic design elements for presentation sake. Also, the smart focus filter was used to add some extra-crispness to the final image. and it's DONE.

So, that's all folks! If you found this helpful or interesting and would appreciate more posts of this kind, please comment and let me know. If instead you hated it or liked to see something else, also let me know. Thanks!

(ESP) estoy en ello.
(EUS) hortan nabil.

Post-Apocalyptic Kid _ 01

(ENG) Here's the first of a series of badass kiddos I started drawing recently. There'll be more of these coming including some explanatory posts on how I go about doing them (hoping that someone will find them helpful or at least interesting); so stay tuned if you like this kind of stuff. As always, feedback is more than welcome. Also, if you have any requests or suggestions on what you'd like to see in those "making of" posts, speak up! I'll appreciate any guidance for I've never done that type of posts before. By the way, just in case you were wondering what this Kiddo is listening to, it's Downtown by Frank Sinatra.

(ESP) Éste es el primero de una serie de niños bribonzuelos y traviesetes que he comenzado a dibujar hace poco. Llegarán más posts de esta serie incluyendo algunos sobre el proceso de creación de las imagenes (espero que alguien encuentre estos últimos de utilidad o al menos interesantes); así que estate alerta si te gustan este tipo de cosas. Como siempre, los comentarios son más que bienvenidos. Si tienes alguna peticion o sugerencia sobre lo que querrías encontrarte en esos post explicativos, dispara! Agradeceré cualquier tipo de consejo ya que nunca antes he hecho posts de ese tipo. Por cierto, si te estabas preguntando qué es lo que está escuchando el crio este, es Downtown de Frank Sinatra.

(EUS) Hemengo hau duela gutxi marrazten hasi nintzen haur gaiztotxoz osaturiko serie bateko lehena da. Hauetako gehiago igoko ditut eta baita irudiak egiterakoan jarraitzen dudan prozesua azaltzen duten post batzuk ere (espero dut norbaiti lagungarri suertatuko zaizkiola edo behitzat interesgarri); beraz, egon zaitez hadi honelako gauzak gustoko badituzu. Beti bezala, iritziak ongi etorriak dira. Gainera, azalpen post horietan ikusi nahiko zenukeenari buruz eskaerarik edo aholkurik adukitzekotan, bota! Ah, eta haurra ze entzuten hari ote den pentsatzen hari bazinen, Frank Sinatraren Downtown da kantua.