Step
2: Thumbnails
Thumbnails are itty bitty drawings, not much bigger than... well, one's thumbnail, really. Mine are rarely more than a few gesture lines. This one was about half the size of a baseball card. A thumbnail usually takes about 30-90 seconds and I'll often do between 2 and 10 before I settle on an approach I want to build a page or illustration around. It's probably difficult to tell what this drawing is, much less how it will eventually turn into a full-sized, full-color piece of monkey art... But, that's okay. It doesn't need to make sense to anyone but me.
Although it's difficult to discern here, my original intent was to have Chip (the monkey) reclining in his chair, holding the pumpkin up with his right foot (a very monkeyish thing to do). I quickly discarded this idea, however, because it took up too much horizontal space and pinups are usually vertical compositions.
Also,
it's important to point out that the major elements of the composition
are represented in the thumbnail. The monkey, the pumpkin, the booze,
the table, the background windows and cupboard... all the basic space
relationships are worked out early in the game. It was also at this stage
that I decided to tilt the whole scene at a 30 degree angle. This not
only adds some visual drama and/or comedic interest, it also helps me
fit all the elements in a bit easier.
I've also included a quick 90-second sketch of the monkey that I did to get to know the character. Often, I'll do little drawings like this to build my own excitement with an illustration. This pic was about as big as the thumbnail.
