I just finished this activity for Warner Press. The one thing that made this activity stand out for me was this was the first time in quite a while I drew the whole thing directly in Adobe Photoshop. The sketch didn’t exist on paper until I printed it out the first time.
That is not generally how I work. Usually, I’ll make the sketch within my sketchbook and then scan it. This time, I decided to give myself the challenge of going directly to the software.
I rendered the background art and bike in Adobe Illustrator. For items that require a straight line, that’s where I go. I laugh when someone sees me draw and say, “I’d like to be an artist, but I can’t draw a straight line.” Join the club! No one I know of draws straight lines without using a mechanical device or the computer.
Since these are pocket books, the art is tiny. That’s another reason why I drew the details in Illustrator, i couldn’t get the detail in the bike or elevator buttons without creating it in Illustrator then pasting the file in Photoshop. When it comes to drawing, the two programs work like a charm.
This art is the property of Warner Press, which is why I added the copyright. Use is prohibited without permission from the publisher. They’re at http://www.warnerpress.org