Drawing "It's A Tech World After All" (step by step)

Believe it or not, writing and drawing Aaron Sallan's comic strip, "It's A Tech World After All" (originally written by Aaron and his dad Bruce Sallan, and then drawn by Aaron) for www.boomertechtalk.com is one of the harder jobs I have. Humor does not always come easy for me, and when it does, it's not always family friendly. It's also hard for me to draw in such a simple and concise style, but I am fortunate enough to have the creative freedom to do it in my own style and employ my own techniques.



Because writing family friendly humor is so far off from what I'm used to, I run all of my ideas past Bruce, before I go on with them. I'll start with a rough sketch, and then develop the words around it, before brushing on the ink. Because I letter in photoshop, it's no big deal if Bruce asks me to change something.





Once the ink is on, I start to color. Even though I keep the colors simple for the sake of keeping in sink with the Sunday Funnies look, I also ad elements from photos that I take when I'm out and about. For instance, Bruce asked me for an ominous Gothic look to the junk yard that "Dad" and "Son" get lost in. This photo I took from my car (I kept my eyes on the road the whole time and didn't look at what I was shooting... got to be safe) was perfect for the gloomy cloud cover that I needed.







After that, some finishing touches were in order. I digitally painted in some headlight glow, and fog to complete the look. The finished strip can be seen here. All of the strips, including the old school Aaron Sallan strips can be seen by clicking, here. Don't forget to leave a comment on your favorite ones.