MATTHEW'S GUTS

Autopsy of “Cattack”  (24” x 24” / 2012)

This was to play more with color and variety than I had been in recent projects.  Here I wanted several long lines that could provide long strands of color.  The grid, helmet, and cat drawings were all on separate paper (for maximum detail for each piece) and then combined and colored digitally.

Was going for a kind of retro album or those 80’s Atari game boxes that commonly played with gradients and rainbows in their cover art.

Cheers!

Autopsy of “King and Queen of Dinner Time” (19”x22” / 2010)

Part 1 of 2

So this one I actually drew in a notepad a couple of times when I had the idea.  Rare that I have these early ideas but for some reason I saved these ones.

I tried to show some up-close details of the line work and stippling.  The paper was animation paper, so the grain is really fine as compared to thicker stocks I use now.  You can see that the lines are never really a perfect black and I don’t like to correct this too much once they are scanned.  I like the imperfections to stay there.

Autopsy of “King and Queen of Dinner Time” (19”x22” / 2010)

Part 2 of 2

Color.  I had done watercolor samples of the colors for this one before scanning, so I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted going in.  The color of the crowns and the silverware was reversed in my original color work

I choose red for the fur color and just build from there.  Silverware was obvious, though I almost went with gold/antique for those.  Since I wanted to add a yellow hue to the atmosphere, I decided agains the gold for the large fork and spoon.  I wanted the most color to come from the characters, so the gold color in the crowns and the rabbit’s teeth felt better placed.

(Side note, I do most of my coloring with a tablet pen.  I like the feel of coloring by hand and I’ve found that the extra time it takes, rather than using a fill tool, does wonders for the subconscious.)