The client who commissioned the work with the George character asked me to draw a notebook to accompany the other objects (binoculars, flashlight, etc) that I’d already drawn. I drew it up in pencil, got approval from the designer and then inked it for him to do the vector work on.

A third sketch of George for the same illustration. Now that George’s design is established I don’t have to worry about what he looks like I just have to find the best way of presenting what he’s doing. I start by giving the client 3 sketches. The client then usually plays a little mix and match with different aspects from each sketch and I do a second draft combining those aspects.

The client asked for another George; this time sitting down with a road sign. These are the first two sketches I worked up from those instructions.

Hey! It’s George!

Now that his design is finalized the client mostly just comes back to me when another George is needed. They tell me what they want George to be doing and I do up some sketches of what that might look like. They then pick and choose what elements they like and I do up a new sketch combining those elements. In this case they requested an illustration of George looking thoughtful.

These items were done as illustration seasoning for the cover for the self-help law book. At this point I don’t remember how they were to be used.

More pre-vector versions of George.

These are some pre-vectoring illustrations of George in his final design. Now that we’ve got George’s look worked out we’ve got a basic process for each new illustration. First the client tells me what George needs to be doing. In this case George needed to gesturing at important parts of the text. I then sketch out a few variations of a pose. Once the client decides which one is preferred I ink the sketch with a basic line. I then forward the illustration to the designer who converts it to a vector illustration for smoother reproduction.

It’s George, feeling rested from his day off.

This is his final outfit, a pullover sport sweater and t-shirt. The client thought his chin was too prominent in this illustration but otherwise this is our boy’s final design.

Still working on tweaking George’s design. The version on the bottom is the result of the client asking for a more … macho? masculine? athletic? … version of the character. I wasn’t exactly sure what they were looking for but they didn’t care for the result. They thought he looked kind of intimidating, less friendly with the added mass. So George stayed thin.