TIP:
Keep your pencils vague, putting in just enough detail to help you with the final illustration, and more important, just enough detail to get client approval. When you work out the pencil in detail and the client approves it, you are locked in. If the pencil is vague and the client approves it, you can take advantage of the creative ideas that you are bound to get while doing the finished art. Just make sure to stay within that vague outline.
Received this tip from Robert Hiendel at an "Illustrator's Workshop" over 15 years ago and I'm still using it today. It works!

I taped a piece of tracing paper (that was slightly larger than the dog) over the dog and began drawing with a 2B pencil. This is not a tracing of the print, but rather a drawing, since I'm making changes to the shape and indicating the style as I work.

Normally my pencils are not much more than an outline, but for this illustration I wanted to work out most of the problems at the pencil stage. After all, this illustration is going to be on the packaging of a major product and will probably be used for several years. Also, this is not just a rendering of a dog, where I'm trying to get a realistic drawing that looks good at just one reproduction size. I see this illustration as a logo, and every line is important. The illustration should look just as good at two feet tall as it will at two inches tall.

TIP:
When shooting a photo for a step-by-step on your web site and your hand is going to be in it, wash your hands first.

FACT:
The markings on the back of a dog in the shape of a saddle is called a "saddle." The Airedale has a "saddle."

Scratchboard Illustration by Michael Halbert
PHONE 636-349-1145 EMAIL michael@inkart.com
Copyright © Michael Halbert 2000