Drawing Board

One of the questions I am asked most often is how I draw the Angels. Here is how I come up with them and examples of the steps involved with the process.

I enjoy drawing musicians very much. I think of them as making a joyful noise unto the Lord. While I was working on the cover art for "The Marshall Tucker Band" new CD I took this picture of Clay Cook. Clay is not only a great musician, but also I though he looked a lot like what an angel might look like.
First step in the illustration is drawing the rough pencil sketch. The pencil sketch is what I use as the foundation of the illustration. In this case I tried to keep the drawing as close to the photo as I could. At this point I’m not really thinking of the angel at all. I’m searching for the rhythms of the piece. I use various kinds of tracing paper and vellum. I draw with a photo blue pencil and a number 2 soft.
This what the finished inked drawing for the album cover looked like. I use Higgins black magic and ink with a variety of crow quill pens (antique radio pens and hunt 106 and 109) The majority of my ink is applied with Windsor Newton series 7 brushes - 1, 0 and 00 or what ever is working for me that day. (click here if you'd like to see how the album cover turned out.)


For this Angel Speak I took the illustration of Clay and flipped it over after having decided on the thought for meditation that the drawing was going to illustrate. The background light seascape came from a photo reference of Cape Cod. I dressed him in some medieval clothing, and made sure that his flute was de-electrified. The final touch when I done is to do the color.

 

  

Tom Brenner colors each Angel in PhotoShop based upon the rough color renderings that I provide him from time to time. The reason we do things this way is that for newspaper reproduction the black line art and color must always be separate so I am only able to water color the angel for gifts. By the way the painting, when I have a chance to do it, is my favorite part of the art.

 

Take a look at Guy's Sketch Book