So here's a page from my wee little Moleskine drawn from a picture in Enroute Magazine on my way to Los Angeles. The story was about guided culinary travels through Greece and featured a young girl holding something very delicious. Having finished the magazine front-to-back, I picked this page and began to draw.
It's really quite simple actually, I quickly plot the basic shapes in pencil then go in with coloured pens. First I establish where the light falls on the face and make sure I leave those spots blank. Following the gesture of her skin, I block out the middle values in orange. Then I go in and identify the darkest spots in the picture using a cool tone, then alternate between warm and cool to finish up. Though the whole process I'm constantly refreshing my impression of the girl, trying to remember what drew me to the photo in the first place. In this case it's her bright eyes and cute little smile, so I had to remind myself of that to ensure a lively drawing. One of my pet peeves is flat, lackluster illustrations from photos. Ones you can TELL came from a photo. Frankly, I find them boring to look at. Often silly juvenille-style illustrations are a lot more fun because the line is free and silly with great appeal. In my work I try to bring that liberated line quality to technical drawings too. We all need to lighten up a bit in the art world. Remember that this is supposed to be fun! The goal is to make the drawing feel more "real" than the photo. Hopefully I've succeeded, but you can be the judge.
