My Sometime After fan-art process

I did another fan art exchange with yet another webcomic creator this past week. This time it was Ryan Fisher, creator of Sometime After, an ongoing comic that explores what happens to storybook/fairy tale characters after they've outlived their relevance. Ryan sent me some Untold Tales of Bigfoot fan art (posted under this week's comic) and here I've posted the process steps for the fan art I sent him.

Ryan's characters are distinctly his own design, so for fun I decided I'd try to draw them in my style rather than ape Ryan's.  These are the pencils. I ran them by Ryan before I continued and he loved them, so I moved on to the next step.

I inked the pencils in Photoshop. Ryan's comic takes place in a woodland, so it was comfortable using some of the same visual shorthand I use with Untold Tales of Bigfoot.

Ryan's comic is done in brushed inks and tones of grey. I wanted to honor that, so I used a few different custom brushes in Photoshop to build up some soft, layered brushstrokes. I was aiming for a gentle, ink-wash feel. After that, I toned the piece with a little yellow (see top image) to match the old-timey feel of the Sometime After homepage. 

Ryan posted my fan art on his site and said some very nice things about it. Thanks, Ryan. If you like my take on Twitch, Rupert and Wesley, then you might enjoy the comic that inspired it. So take some time to stop by Ryan Fisher's Sometime After. -v