If Futurama was Real...

...well, what I think it might look like.

New New York

(click image to enlarge)

Just sharing a larger version of this, my personal favorite photo-illustration. It took a couple weeks of work, fitting in time whenever I could, so i don't have an accurate hour count. Most of the major elements were purchased from istockphoto.com. I like the appeal of the the city in the opening credits; it's completely busy from ground to air. I usually try not to make things so cluttered or without a clear subject... this had a collage feel in the end and I think it helped capture that ongoing busyness of the cartoon city.

Individual works in progress (click image to enlarge):









The original image was created for a Worth1000.com contest.

Reality Toon Illustrations, inside look

- CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IN NEW WINDOW -
about the steps, below

ZOIDBERG AND BENDER


COUNT AND BERT (Yeah, I know they're not toons. Whatev.)


FRED AND DINO




"Futurama" pencil sketch


"Futurama" smudge step


"Futurama" working size abstract


"Sesame" pencil sketch


"Sesame" smudge step


"Sesame" working size abstract


"Flintsone" pencil sketch

"Flintsone" smudge step

"Flinstone" working size abstract



These were fun to make; I hope you like. I thought this series would be a good way to kick off this blog, which will feature new work as it comes and will offer a little insight into the old ones.

These three were made with nearly identical processes.

First I start with a pencil sketch--well, after a bit of online hunting for inspiration. As you can see the pencil work really isn't that spectacular. It's just shapes and general details that are needed and I suck with a tablet. I also use the pencil lines as "paint" to smudge around in Photoshop.

Next, every bit gets smudged, darkened and sharpened in Photoshop. A step-by-step procedure with examples can be found here. Some textures are added, and we pretty much have the final version minus color, final details and processing. This results in the "Smudge Steps" links above.

I color the image with various masked adjustment layers. These days I like to use Gradient Map, Hue/Sat and Photo Filter, but the examples in this post were mostly done with Hue/Sat. Another step-by-step tutorial can be found here. I'm a big believer in non-destructive editing, and coloring this way is pretty much an obsessive way to keep things editable.

Finally, tiny details are tweaked, and overall color and contrast is adjusted the same way I'd post-process a photograph digitally. The "Working size abstracts" show a little more detail (I like to work at roughly twice the size of the final intended image).

Thanks for checking these out.