Here is a look at the poster I created for my sister. I was trying to think of a great birthday present for her. She’s a homebody, so gift cards and clothes aren’t really her thing. So, what do you get for someone who doesn’t really go out that much? Art. Get them art that you made. I normally go to comic book conventions and buy fan art for people. Somehow, I never thought to make my own art as a gift for someone.

Behind the Art

My sister is an awesome basketball player. She played ball on the blacktop with the dudes. As a result, she had sick handles and speed. She was also hell from the 3-point line. If the ABL or WNBA were just a tad earlier, she could have played on a professional level. I often think about what it would have been like for her to step on the court with Cheryl Swoopes or Rebecca Lobo. That inspired me to make a poster of her. 

So, What do you get for someone who doesn’t really go out that much? Art. Get them art that you made.

ONE BRUSH ARMY

Art Process

I used Procreate almost exclusively for this project. For the text at the top and bottom, I used Photoshop. I also use an app called Viz Ref to collect all of my photo references. Eventually, I will get into the Affinity suite of apps to have a full, start-to-finish pipeline on iPad.

I went through a number of different sketches to work out the proportions. I also simplified the pose a bit to make it look more cartoony. 

At this point, I made wanted her face to be cartoony. But I found that it just wasn’t working for me. I didn’t like the way it looked. I brought in a photograph and made a more accurate sketch of her face. That seemed to work better for me. I still made a few adjustments to the eye sizes and smile, however. 

Before I made a change to her face, I’d already inked the entire character. I just erased the old face and placed the new one. I added color and boom; a finished illustration. For the background, I used a watercolor brush to give it some texture. Then I added her photo with overlay transparency.  

Conclusion

She absolutely loved this poster. It reminded her of the joy she had playing the sport in her youth. That’s the type of impact that we love to have as artists. I credit cartoons with keeping a smile on my face as a kid and keeping me out of the streets. It would be a blessing to see anything that I do on this platform be able to have the same effect on someone else. 

Thanks for reading.