First sketches for a Year in Review project for The Nib. After jotting down some notes to spur ideas (words not pictures), I then just sketch the roughest of thumbnails to get my bearings. The one at the top is the first sketch and the Post-It note was something that I woke up in the middle of the night to scratch out. Not a very big leap, but it clarified a few things in my mind.

After a few fits and starts a more cohesive idea begins to take shape. Still, very rough, with the knowledge that there will be ideas jettisoned and changes made.

Tighter, more notations to myself, putting things in their places and leaving some areas until later.

Rough ideas sharpened, characters more fully formed, juxtapositions made, and space is filling up nicely. I'm satisfied that I can start moving from sketch phase to actual drawings. It's time to break out the brushes and the ink.

OK. I don't know how you do it, or how you get from sketches to final art, but this is the way I do it. More refinement of individual images, and drawing the characters in ink and building the image from a bunch of different drawings. After I draw things umpteen times, I select the winners for consistency of line and "quality" and then on to scanning, cleanup, stitching the pieces together and then digitally coloring. The color is in the back of my mind throughout the process, I have a rough idea of what I want to do. This is the part that I find most tedious.Sure, it would probably be easier to do it all digitally, but like I said, this is the way I do it, especially on a complicated piece like this with so many moving parts. I find comfort in overthinking and reworking things.

Aaaaand, the final product. Seriously, there were a bunch of phases/changes here too, but the sheer boredom of this stage prevented me from doing screen grabs. Thanks for watching, see the piece in context here: https://medium.com/the-nib/2014-the-year-in-garbage-626ca0d58c6