I’ve heard from several people that they have really enjoyed the process blogs that I’ve posted showing how designs come together, so I wanted  to do that again for “Who’s Who” – starting from the original sketch through the final design.

For anyone interested, after its momentous day at TeeFury this design is currently available through my own shop: http://shop.ianleino.com , screenprinted locally on American Apparel shirts.

Here’s my initial sketch, where I worked out exactly how to cram 11 people into the TARDIS, trying to ensure that they were all visible and interacting with each other. After I had the composition worked out, I added costume details for each Doctor based on my reference images.

As much as possible, I tried to use existing photos as references for the Doctors’ expressions, but for a few of them I just couldn’t find the look I needed. For those, I took reference pictures of myself and used those as a positioning guide to be able to draw their features into the expressions I needed. Once I was happy with their likenesses, I combined them with my earlier sketches in Photoshop, then printed out the new image and took it to my lightbox for inking.

Inking, inking and more inking using a new set of Sakura Pigma Sensei pens.

For the TARDIS, I created a wireframe image using Illustrator’s 3D tool (see this post for a more in-depth look) with the perspective that I needed and used it as a guide for the pen drawing.

Now that everything was drawn, I combined the two inked images in Photoshop and after much tinkering was able to get the palette down to 5 colors for printing. I separated the colors, prepped the file, sent it to the printer, and if you pre-order now you'll soon be able to wear it on your body!

The print through my shop is a 6-color screenprinted design on a black shirt using a discharge base and soft-hand inks for a super soft and comfortable shirt.

For those who would prefer it on another color, I've also made it available through RedBubble.com

Thanks for looking!