Jeremy Ley

Posts tagged process

Saligia Beer Mural Process

Here's a blog post I put up on the Scotch College Library Blog, when I did a guest workshop there a couple of months ago.

A designer, from an agency called Mentally Friendly, has a client that was fond of my work. His client is a computer company that have decided to brew their own beer. What started off as a hobby has now become a little more serious, they have even installed a bar within their own studio! They have named their beer ‘Saligia’, which is a Latin acronym for the Seven Deadly Sins. The designer’s idea was to have a mural of the seven demons brewing the beer, so it was educational as well as fun. We decided I could make a better drawing if I did it on my computer, then print it out on vinyl and stick it on, rather than me fly up there and paint it on.

Here’s a reference picture that shows the tone of what they wanted the demons to look like. More tongue in cheek than a serious looking Lord of the Rings style demon. Yoda and Ewoks!
 
 
They also gave me some information of how the brewing process works. Here’s one of the pictures.
 

I sent them a reference picture from a Japanese film called Steamboy, as a guide to what I saw it looking like; old cooper, ridiculous amount of pipes, nuts and bolts, tubes, heaps of detail.
 
 
Then I came up with a rough sketch of one of the demons and an even rougher sketch of the layout.
 
 
 
They loved it! So I used that sketch to come up with a more detailed rough image. First, I drew the different areas that need to be included. Then I drew the demons, making sure that they all looked different from each other. This requires a lot of rubbing out and redrawing. If you look at any good cartoons you’ll see that there’s a variation among the main characters, while still keeping in the same style. It’s a delicate balance. Cartoons are a serious business!
 
 
I then put down some colour, to give a rough indication of a colour palette. I decided to go with the green to match the lime green bench top they have in their studio. The demons were made red to contrast with the green.
 
 
Here’s a rough placement guide to show them what it’ll look like when it’s up.
 
 
They loved that too. The only change was to make sure I spell Saligia correctly.
Now I have to go over the image and make sure the lines look nice. As I do this, more detail and texture will be added. It’s important when you’re tracing over something to make sure you can hardly see what you’re drawing, so you’re creating an entire new artwork rather than just going over it. 
 
And here's how it turned out...
 
 
 

Jacky Winter / Bowery storyboard

Here's a storyboard I did that's part of a promotional peice The Jacky Winter Group are doing. I've posted the different stages so you can see how it all comes together.

First I draw a thumbnail. This is to see if I'm on the right track. I try to keep it pretty fluid and loose, drawing it in about 2 minutes.

Once I get the go ahead I make a rough drawing. It's important to maintain the energy of the thumbnail while still adding in the details.

Then when I get the 'two thumbs up' I proceed to the finished stage. It's important when tracing to drop the opacity right down to 4% or 6% so that the linework isn't clouded by the rough. Then I colour using either two or three layers.

Ta-da! Pretty cool hey.