[ QUOTE ]
MOSS ... If you are reading this ...
I'm curious - how long does it take to draw an illustration like the one you did of Illuvatar?
Do you make the drawing the same size as the original photo? Do you need to use a certain hardness of pencil to do it?
How do you store your drawing work to keep it safe from damage?
When you deliver the final drawing, how do you send it? Or will the customer like Preston pick it up in-person?
[/ QUOTE ]
Oops, who me? Fell asleep in class again.
I didn't keep track of my hours on Illuvatar. Many, many, hours, my wife declared me insane at the time I was working on it. She was correct.
The drawings are much larger than the photos, at least twice as large and sometimes WAY larger, depends on the drawing.
Only two drawings, the traverse and the lobaria were done in pencil (I like a 3b, but that depends on the drawing). Most of the rest were done with permanent ink markers. The Eucalyptus regnans forest was done with brush and India ink. Illuvatar was done entirely on the computer using a digital tablet. I tweaked the drawing tool to simulate a fine ink stroke. The file is very high resolution, I could only see a small part of the drawing at a time as I was working, like looking through a keyhole at the drawing. I printed frequent paper proofs so I could see what was going on. Who said creating drawings on a computer was easy?
I store the drawings in a cardboard box layered between acid free trace paper.
The maps were nearly as difficult as Illuvatar (which was the most challenging of all). The maps are based on faded photocopies of hand drawn maps, tourist maps with hand scrawled notes, satellite imagery etc., parts are drawn by hand and scanned in, everything was composited, typeset and drawn by hand by me on the computer. I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS to build the final maps. I'm not a pro map maker so I had to learn as I went, always takes longer that way.
For the maps and drawings multiple versions were created before arriving at the final. Many back and forths with the author, typical for this kind of work. There is quite a bit more work put into it than is shown in the book.
Maps and Illuvatar were delivered as high-quality paper proofs and electronic files, for everything else the paper originals were provided to the publisher. Final art is shipped directly to the publisher's art department. While I was working on the illustrations I put scanned proofs on the web for the author to approve.
-moss
