Thursday, May 12, 2016

Punisher commission - process

bitmap - 1200 dpi version



I was commissioned to do a more muscular, black Punisher drawing. The reference image was a computer generated cover (at least that's what it looked like) with the Punisher resting a shotgun on his shoulder and his free hand resting on a holstered gun.


The first drawings were less than stellar, with the pose of the Punisher looking very staid; kind of like Sears Portrait Studio photo shoot for vigilantes.

I sketched the composition on a piece of newsprint
paper then I traced that onto tracing paper to refine
some of the ideas I had on the newsprint. Ultimately,
an unnecessary waste of time.
pencils - draft 1

I got as far as the pencils, at first... A FEW TIMES! I really had to step back, re-sketch and rethink. This was getting a little out of hand.



I returned to the sketchbook and worked out a picture that felt more like something I would draw.





From them, I made a new preliminary sketch, this time I did the sketch on half of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper with the intention of blowing it up on a copier and transferring it onto Bristol board with a lightbox.


This way, I can see the whole composition; I'm not drawing so close to the page, my lines are less detailed and I can focus more on the gesture.

From the sketch, I started penciling, adding little details as I went until I got to a point I felt I could start inking.


My inking process is usually to block in the figure and add the rendering after establishing the form but, this time I went a little crazy.

I played with folds and shadows. I started  outlining
 accessories and belt packs.
The guns came next. More accessories, more folds,
though, I did start establishing the overall figure.
Everything is pretty much blocked in. I would start the
rendering of his arms soon, as well as effects like scratching
out details with a razorblade, splatter and any application of
white ink..

I wanted to change the shadow of the shotgun cast onto the brick wall background, so I had to ink everything first and change it when it came to inking the shadow itself.

grayscale - 600 dpi version


Voila! The final inked piece. I scan at 1200 dpi in bitmap and 600 dpi in grayscale for my records and maybe for color in the future. I'll wrap and ship this piece once the payment goes through and the client will have a new piece of artwork to hang on their wall.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through my process, Thanks for sticking around.

-L