My Artistic Process, Part 2 - Reference

Let’s talk about how I go about creating a portrait. Someday I will get around to recording a video of the process, but for now, let’s break it down into some basic steps.

Note: For this demo, I am using a recent portrait I created of a DC Comics character named “Sun Boy”. In a previous blog, I mentioned that I leverage the benefits of digital artwork to quickly explore a wide range of styles and problem-solving techniques. This can get tedious when working in 2–3-hour daily stretches (5 or more when working on a client piece) so I like to combine these exercises with fun – namely drawing my favorite superheroes.

Image Selection

Part of the fun of this exercise, for me, is to redraw classic superheroes as modern-day people, as though I were casting my own live-action series about these characters. I’ve spent a lot of time reading comics and feel that I understand their personalities, and selecting a source image that reflects those traits is paramount.

For Sun Boy, I found an image that had the fiery hot-head demeanor that the character is known for.

Just as important in image selection is resolution. It can’t be stated enough that high-resolution results in greater levels of detail. For this portrait, I found an extremely high-resolution image to work with via one of the many stock photo services I use.