IF: Clumsy First Steps

I started off by doodling on my wacom tablet in Adobe Photoshop.  When I got a good enough rough pose (the left drawing) I pulled my cintiq over and continued to refine it. 

If you're drawing on the computer it's probably better to use a cintiq because you're drawing directly on the screen (whereas a wacom, you're drawing on a pad while looking at a computer screen)...so while I don't mind doing my roughs that way, when I want to tighten something up I would rather have the precision of a cintiq. 

Anyway - I use different colors just to set off the lines from the previous pass.  The drawing on the right is actually two layers over the rough.  The first layer was done in green to get add dimension, and the second layer was done in brown and was a more solidified line.  You can also see that I moved the kid over a little bit because he was too far away and his arms were getting a bit long.

The drawing below was from a printout.  When I get my rough done in the computer I always feel like I have to go over it with a real pencil (blue lead) and that's almost always how I get my final rough that's ready for clean-up.

I'm doing this illustration for Dreamstime.  It's one of the better stock image agencies (just behind Shutterstock and Istockphoto)...but what's unique about this site is that they do a monthly contest.  Usually illustrators don't win, but it's always nice to enter - not because of how much fun it is to play...but rather, the incentives.  On Dreamstime when you upload an image it has to sell 5 times to bump up to the next level and another 20 times to reach the next...and each level is means that it costs more and more each time it's downloaded.  When you enter a pic into the contest, however (and if it's accepted), it automatically jumps up to level 5 (which means if you didn't do the contest, you'd have to have it sell 100 times to reach that point).  In any case, it's a chance to showcase some work, as well as possibly create business by funneling people into your portfolio through that one picture.

The contest this month is First Steps.  I think my illustration is rather an obvious decision for the topic, but it's also something that might do well.  I just have to clean it up and color it (probably in Illustrator, as stock image sites usually prefer vector art).

And a small ps:
I don't know if anyone else has this sort of problem, but I can't seem to keep my counters.  I started one last year and it, and the website it came from, disappeared at the beginning of December with 23,000 or so views - so I had to start over...and the last counter I had (which started on December 3rd) just crossed the 8000 visitor mark before blinking out earlier this week...

And not that anyone cares, but this post marks the newest blog...and we'll see how high this one will climb before quitting on me...