Uniflop Process - Part1

Happy March 1st!
I've been reading Alice in Wonderland to my kids at night. That book is awesome and completely insane. Waaaaaaay crazier than the disney version. So any who, in honor of the March Hare I thought I'd post this piece I've been working on and show a little of the process I went through to create it.

I call it "Startled by the Uniflop"

The Uniflop is a very rare magical creature. With the body of a deranged, white jack rabbit and a unicorn's horn protruding from just above it's creepy visage it is truly a sight to behold.
Often the Uniflop seems to appear out of nowhere. It then spends the next few minutes (or however long it decides to stay around) hopping around just inside your personal bubble while being careful to never actually make physical contact.
Those who have encountered this creature are often overwhelmed with an uneasy feeling, not because of it's dangerous powers, or ferocious disposition, but because of it's striking awkwardness.

Anyway, now that I've educated you on this rare creature... here's how I did this illustration.

Step 1- Thumbnail. It all started with this:

a tiny drawing to establish the general layout and value... though I switched the value where the Uniflop is.

Step 2 - Larger Layout comp. Then I scaled things up a bit and worked out where things would be placed and bit more detail of the posing of characters. At this point I knew it was a troll that would be startled but the startling agent was going to be a kitten. I scratched that idea because it seemed so... well... unimaginative.

Step 3 - Now the flood of sketches. Ranging from really ugly and sloppy chicken scratches to more refined sketches. This is just to explore the character designs and poses. During this process I looked at images of jack rabbits and pictures of me posing like a little startled girl. (here are a few of those... sketches, not the pictures of me. Those were deleted and sent to the void.)

Some of them are really hideous so... yeah. But, it is all in the name of science! or progress.

Step 4 - When I get the design I like (the last one above) I take an awesomely cruddy photo and put it in photoshop. Referring to the original thumbnail and layout comp I create a larger composition including value and more background details.

yeah... I know it's hideous... but so is the scaffolding of a building. Anyway, that's what I have to remind myself at this point.

So........... part 2 next time!

I feel so exposed right now.

And a big Thanks to Adam Munoa for doing a artist spotlight of me on his blog. Hopefully I will be able to share some of his work here soon.

Part 2 is here