Behold the Notebook


The client who commissioned the work with the George character asked me to draw a notebook to accompany the other objects (binoculars, flashlight, etc) that I’d already drawn. I drew it up in pencil, got approval from the designer and then inked it for him to do the vector work on.

Designing George, Part 17


A third sketch of George for the same illustration. Now that George’s design is established I don’t have to worry about what he looks like I just have to find the best way of presenting what he’s doing. I start by giving the client 3 sketches. The client then usually plays a little mix and match with different aspects from each sketch and I do a second draft combining those aspects.

Designing George, Part 15


Hey! It’s George!

Now that his design is finalized the client mostly just comes back to me when another George is needed. They tell me what they want George to be doing and I do up some sketches of what that might look like. They then pick and choose what elements they like and I do up a new sketch combining those elements. In this case they requested an illustration of George looking thoughtful.

Designing George, Part 12


These are some pre-vectoring illustrations of George in his final design. Now that we’ve got George’s look worked out we’ve got a basic process for each new illustration. First the client tells me what George needs to be doing. In this case George needed to gesturing at important parts of the text. I then sketch out a few variations of a pose. Once the client decides which one is preferred I ink the sketch with a basic line. I then forward the illustration to the designer who converts it to a vector illustration for smoother reproduction.

Designing George, Part 10


Still working on tweaking George’s design. The version on the bottom is the result of the client asking for a more … macho? masculine? athletic? … version of the character. I wasn’t exactly sure what they were looking for but they didn’t care for the result. They thought he looked kind of intimidating, less friendly with the added mass. So George stayed thin.