Scotty's Pet Scenes: Part 2: The Drawing Process

(Click to read Scotty's Pet Scenes Part 1: The Commission Process)

Q- What is the actual process of you drawing my cartoon?

A-

1. The first thing that I do is read through your answers on my Pet Personality form, and look at the photos that you’ve sent me. (Admittedly, this is one of my favourite parts of the process, as I get to study gorgeous dogs. What's not to like?!)

2. I draw up a table of information, which is especially helpful when I am drawing more than one pet in a scene. This enables me to compare details about each pet, and condense the information.

3. If I have multiple ideas for a scene, I will rough sketch a few possible scenes to see which would work best

4. Once I’ve decided on a scene, I make a new table with the scene information in it, so that I have a clear guide of information to refer back to for the scene itself.

5. I sketch out a very rough layout, to place where everything will be positioned in the scene.

6. The next drawing is to add in the extra details of the scene

7. Now I draw a “final” rough, adding further detail in.

8. The stages up to this point often make around 50% of the whole time on the cartoon, as there is a lot of erasing and resketching done to get things exactly as I want them to be!

9. The black linework is next, before deleting the rough stages.

10. Colour is next. Sometimes I will colour in the background first, but I will always colour the pets before the accessories, so that the colours go together well.

11. I decide where my light source is to be in the scene, and then I add shading and highlights accordingly. I love this stage, as it always makes the cartoon ‘POP!’

12. Now I send you the picture…and hold my breath until I hear that you love it!

Although this is a Christmas gag cartoon rather than a Pet Scene, the process is similar in this video that I made a few years ago if you fancy a watch...

Click to read Scotty's Pet Scenes: Part 3: FAQs