WORK STAGES on hybrid analog/digital test illo from THE CHASTE AND THE CHAINED! (Patreon)

So! 

The image gallery above features the Work Stages on a test illo I've been working on for potential workflow on fantasy project The Chaste and the Chained. Several different creative approaches issues were being tried out with this piece, as you'll see.

First off, I was trying out a "new-to-me" pencil lead, to see if it could replace my dwindling supply of long-ago-discontinued 5B Prismacolor Turquoise leads, which are the only type I can use for Empowered-style pencil artwork without screwing up my drawing arm.

Specifically, I was trying out a recently discovered cache of 4B Turquoise leads, which have also been discontinued by Prismacolor but were still in production more recently, hence the availability. Scrawled an initial rough with the 4Bs:

...before realizing I had to flop the piece to have the Paladin holding the Holy Sword in his right hand. Back to the drawing board (well, table):

So far, so good, as the 4B leads hadn't yet set my arm on fire.

The next issue being tested was the approach of penciling the final illo on a sheet of smooth-finish Strathmore Bristol board, allowing me to do "taller," comic-proportioned originals, unlike the squat, 8.5" X 11" paper I used for (most) Empowered pages. I transferred the roughs to the Bristol and did my usual underdrawing in faint H-lead pencil, here level-adjusted in Photoshop for clarity:

Next, I moved on to using the 4B leads, along with Sharpie and PITT Artist Pen inks, to work up the finished illo:

The results looked decent enough, though the jury's out on how the 4Bs treated my drawing arm, which experienced some irritation but didn't feel fully ablaze. Next, the "hybrid" portion of the test kicked in as I opened a scan of the pencils in Clip Studio Paint and did some tweaking:

Ehh, maybe? Note that I completely hacked out those g-d patterns running down the back of the Elf's breeches; I considered leaving 'em out when I exported this jpeg from the CSP file, which might've been a better call.

Anyhoo, the issue at hand is that I'm not at all sure that I'm going to ever develop an al-digital art approach that can produce finished artwork acceptable to me. So, I've been considering a potential "hybrid" technique, in that I'd do comic roughs digitally, transfer 'em to Bristol and do the base artwork in pencil and ink, and finally scan the art back into CSP and do a final pass with digital tools.

This would be a rather convoluted workflow that might prove excessively slow and cumbersome, though this would also boast the benefit of producing original artwork that I could potentially sell. Hrmmm.

Anyhoo, further analog and digital tests will continue. Onward!

NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: No idea what's coming up in our next M/W/F slot, TBH. Let's find out together, shall we?