i received a suggestion to do a blog post about my illustration process. i thought that was a great idea! but i will warn you this will be a long post.

so! my style has changed a lot since moving to amsterdam. mostly because i had to leave behind my scanner. so i’ve been using a camera and tripod and a lot more photoshop. but it’s nice to have challenges and find ways to work around them. i think my art has grown a lot because of this.

naturally it all starts with a sketch. i keep a nice ammount of sketchbooks lying around and try to fill them up with ideas when i have down time. i don’t go into a crazy amount of detail in the first sketch. it’s usually some scribbley little guys doing something.

so i will choose a scribble and get out some nice paper and draw it up. sometimes i’ll do a little detail work with an ink pen. sometimes…

onto paint! (look how filthy my palette is!) i don’t really know how to explain this part well. i just kind of slosh it on. wiggle it around. then there it is. i’ll go in at the end with a tiny brush and add details like hairs and little noses.

(why yes my computer IS held together with electrical tape. i can’t handle owning expensive electronics. this is why i haven’t had a cellphone since 2010)

it’s nice to have a little dog at your feet while you do this. a cat would work, too. (though when psycho killer was alive he would try to drink my paint water and leave little paw prints on the work. cute!)

next is the part that is new to me. tripod, fancy camera, low iso, super focus, thank god i have great natural light.

once it’s in the computer and in photoshop i remove the background and clean things up a bit.

collage them all together in a nice composition.

add more, add flourishes, add type if i want it.

and there you have it! a sarah goodreau illustration.

the end.