Home	TECHNIQUE page.	DEF page.
	ECCENTRIC... Throughout the process, the thumbnail idea remained pretty much as conceived. Click on any illustration for an enlargement. The first full size sketch. I can always tell when I look at my sketchbook which sketches were done while something else was going on. I can tell because they're always more elaborate than the others. I didn't want to get up, so I just kept on fixing and shading. The final drawing. Hardly anything changed between this and the last step...just the diver's watch I added. This step is a preparatory step for the colored pencil stage--water-based dyes to cover the white of the paper. I tend to go overboard on this stage. I keep forgetting the transparency of the colored pencils. I get a reminder in the next step. The colored pencil stage...there are a lot of layers on this illustration. I deliberately included a lot of the turquoise/teal background color in the dog. I was experimenting to see if the character blended in with the letter more... ...we'll never know if it would or not, because, during this final stage of painting with acrylics, when I add the whites and yellow-whites to punch up the highlights, I overworked things (as usual), and lost a lot of the background color. Next time, I promise to stop when I'm done and not to overwork things (I don't think I've ever made that promise before...now I know I'll never overwork anything ever again). You'll notice that I redid the goggles. I originally had "finished" them pretty much as you see them in the colored pencil stage, and yes, I redid them after I made the vow above. I thought the lens drew too much attention, plus they made the dog (that's a dog, by the way) looke more like an insect than a dog. Ironically, one of the early captions for this letter was Earthling?, and with those yellow-green eyes, I was uncertain myself. The letter looks much better now...which is why I maintain that even when you think you're done, you should keep pushing on, reworking, reworking... TECHNIQUE page