Fury-Ous Sketch Progress
An in-progress look at my pencil-to-marker sketching technique.
Laying out the guidelines... At this stage, some loose lines to place the key parts of the composition are all that's needed. Perspective lines give us an idea of where things will be placed, and give a general feel for scale and proportion as well.
I start to tidy-up the car at this point, bringing in a little marker to darken-up the shadow areas, and make permanent those lines I wish to keep.
Blocking-in some gray tones. Just some loose grays to start giving the piece some depth. Key here is deciding which forms will recede in space, and which will be left up front. I also spend a little time defining the car's shadow.
Cleaning-up some of the stray sketch lines, and adding some color to block in some lighting for later. I like the work to appear translucent, versus having just color planted atop more color (which can get awfully muddy-looking), so a little color washing at this point pays off HUGE later on.
I bring in some color to the car at this stage, tightening-up the shading and lines... While the whole image is loose, I like to have certain areas (like the wheels) show a bunch of detail, to draw the eye in and around the work...
A ton of time spent blocking-in color, and implying some brick on the storefronts. Blending is the key at this stage, and using it in a restrained manner can help to give not only a nice, loose feel, but make the lighting and shadow appear more natural, versus blocked-in and forced. I tend to work from the lightest to darkest areas in stages, moving back over and into those areas that need richer or darker tones.