GRUMMY book illustration (process)

Sarah and I are contributing an illustration to the companion book for the upcoming GRUMMY short film that was funded by creator Micheline Pitt  on Kickstarter. 

I thought I'd show off the process on the drawing here. 

So, I had an idea in mind for the pin-up before going into roughs, which of course always helps things move along. The GRUMMY project deals with childhood monsters and imagination and I decided to go with a slight twist on the "monster under the bed" bit, only the creature is startled by a little kid doing the "flashlight under the face" bit. Nothing earth-shattering, but a decent enough concept to hang a single piece on. The main goals I want to accomplish is to make the monster interesting, the piece itself attractive, sell the "gag" (mainly through the creature's reaction), and show our kid empowered over their bedtime nightmare.  

I did the two initial roughs above in red and blue pencil (Prismacolor Col-Erase Carmine Red and Blue/Light Blue) in my sketchbook (I used to always rough things out on loose sheets of paper but I'm getting a little tired of having all those loose sheets of paper around). The smaller one above captured the basic approach I wanted but has a weak-looking monster. The larger rough yielded a basic shape and look I was more interested in drawing and having fun with. I added some arms and tendrils and eyes other odds and ends to "bang it" into nicer shape, sort of a bat-snake-centipede kind of plushy thing.  The different pencil colors help me separate some elements, so I could reject or accept them more easily. If I like something I will usually lock it in with the darker blue pencil to get a shape I like firmed up (as described this sounds a lot more like I go through a rigorous intellectual process here, when what was mostly going on was a bunch of scribbling and then deciding "yes" or "no" after the lines hit the paper.  And then scribbling some more.).

Anyway, I liked my monster/general angle, so I scanned the rough in gray scale, made it darker and printed an enlarged image (below) to tape to my art pad. 

I decided to draw the monster first and fill out the bed, child and room after, I'll work those separately as a tighter rough after I get some solid reference for the furniture, room and lighting. I'd prefer to pencil it all at once like a real artist, but I'm scattered and overwhelmed and needed to start getting things down on paper to nose it along for the mid-month deadline while I juggle in other stuff (this isn't a paying gig). I'll scan and transfer those elements on the light pad to align with the monster, who is almost penciled, but still a work-in-process. 

You can see additions and subtractions made while I'm tightening things up on the light pad (below). I'm trying not to stiffen things up too much, I like the cartoony feel the small arms have, and the mouth and expression are pretty "lively", but I'm afraid everything will stiffen up in the inks. Mike Mignola once told me his comics art approach is to "pencil slow, ink fast". I am not Mike Mignola. I pencil slow (and screwy), and ink slow (and scared). 

That being said, I like this guy so far, he's been fun to draw and didn't take long to work out.  I'll post more images after I work on the rest of the piece, which is where I need to buckle down and not hack stuff out or the monster is wasted on a dead drawing ( wish me luck!) . Inks and Sarah's colors will follow asap. 

If you're interested in looking into the GRUMMY film WIP (and the other artists on the book, some of whom I'm sure you'll know), here's the Kickstarter link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grummy/grummy