Photoshop comp, Digital pencil sketch, Ink/Brush Drawing, Adobe Illustrator tones

I'm working on a portrait of Malala Yousafzai as part of my residency at Planet Labs. The conference rooms at Planet are all named for various contemporary and historical figures that have made a difference in the world with humanitarian and scientific contributions. The plan is for the finished portrait to be featured in the "Malala" conference room.

I started the portrait with a pieced together Photoshop composite to get the pose that I wanted. I basically traced the resulting image in digital pencil on my computer to get the proportions right. I refined the trace with real pencil and then used ink and a brush to lay down the ink lines. The inks were then scanned and prepared to bring into Adobe Illustrator with Cocoa Potrace. In Illustrator, I plotted in the basic tones and shapes.

Right now, I'm working on the final texture work, using hashing created with the help of Astute Graphics "WidthScribe". Then, I'll bring the artwork into Manga Studio for more touch-ups.

More process posts from this series can be found at my blog.