"Men in White"
Artist Bob White's step-by-step illustration process
Whenever an artist is charged with creating artwork to illustrate a written story, the first step in the process is to come up with an image that encapsulates the author's narrative. In this case, Doug Larsen's "Last Call" column, "Men in White," is about field hunting snow geese, so the image is fairly straightforward; a hunter walking back to the blind, through the decoys, carrying a couple of geese.
I usually reference my own photographs, but in some cases I don't have just the right shot with which to work. When this happens I rely on the generosity of friends who are professional photographers. In this case, it's my buddy Tosh Brown. Tosh had a great photograph of a hunter in the perfect attitude, albeit with one Canada goose instead of two snows. I decided it would be a simple matter to change the species of the goose, draw a second one, add the field decoys, and since there's no mention of a dog in the story, do away with the black Lab. Done deal.
See how he did it » |
