First of all I picked up paper, pencils and a dark espresso. But you can drink whatever you want, of course. For this artwork I elaborated Dan’s request – how to draw a monster – and I remembered what Francisco Goya expressed once: El sueño de la razón produce monstruos. So I started from there thinking about a concept.

It tooked some time before starting the layout art. Usually I do some sketches in smaller size, just to have a look at the composition, how to put togheter all the elements before going any further. This is not the case. I started directly with the layout art, first with a pencil, then with a marking pen. In this passage it’s really important not to be afraid to make mistakes. You can use several papers and do lot of sketches before being happy of the result.

After that I did the final ink on another paper, adding more details and adjusting slightly what was unfinished in the previous passage. Accuracy is really important now. This was made with a marking pen. Just try some of them until you find the best one for you.

As the ink was finished, I made a scan of the artwork and started coloring it with photoshop. Scan has to be at least 300 dpi. I did it in greyscale and then turned in CMYK. I use to work with two different selections: one for the characters, one for background. I started with some basic colours on a new layer. Always keep the ink separated from the colours until the work is done. Some shades were added as the colouring proceeded.

On a new layer in multiply I did all the shadows. In this case light is from above. Just take care about volumes. I used a sharp brush.

On another layer setted lighten I’ve added some lights, more vivid, on the monsters coming out from the brain, to make them kind of sleek. In all these passages don’t hesitate to try several brushes until you find the kind of result you like. In this case I used a sort of chalk brush.

At the end I’ve added two textures. A dirty paper for the background and a rusty surface for the brain. You can take pics with your camera to all the surfaces you find interesting and then elaborate them to obtain the kind of effect you like.

- Giovanni Rigano

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