Cover Story: Manny Avetisyan's Process

Stairway to the Election

Article Transcript

I love to tell stories.
To me, art is a powerful tool for visual communication. It is not enough for something to look cool; a piece of art must tell a story if it is to have any real meaning. It doesn’t always have to be an obvious story, but it should engage the observer and provoke some sort of reaction, or thought. It’s challenging, to be sure, but very satisfying once you have solved the riddle of piecing together the story you want to tell.

It began with an idea.
Following the chaos of the presidential elections, I imagined all the presidential nominees running around in an M.C. Escher type maze, confused about how to get from where they were to where they wanted to be. It is an especially confusing time for voters. This was the story I wanted to tell, from my perspective.

Rough Digital mock-up
I began by creating a rough digital mock-up of the idea in my head.

Background layout and design
Using an HB pencil, I began with a light rough sketch of the background for the piece on a large Mat-Board I cut to 22”x32”. I was careful to make the markings light, since the Characters were going to go over the lines, and it’s very difficult to erase on MatBoard I used Escher’s stairwell piece as inspiration, but with my own twist…like a “caricature” version of the original.

Designing the Characters
The fun part is sketching out each subject. My goal was to include everyone who ran for the 2016 presidential primaries both on the Democratic and Republican side. At this point I wasn’t too worried about placement. I had an idea for the three main characters, Trump, Bernie and Clinton, but hadn’t planned where the others would go yet. Once I was satisfied with the caricatures, I rendered them out to a point where details like shadows and highlights emerged. I tried to make the sketches as “complete” as possible. Less to figure out later.

Digital mock-up
To get a good idea of the whole piece before I started, I scanned in the drawings and created a digital mock-up in Photoshop. I worked out bodies and layout digitally at this point. I also digitally painted in all the light and shadows to save time later on the actual piece. Once I was happy with the layout, it was time to get to the real work.

Transfer time!
I began printing out the subjects individually. Placing them onto the canvas. I used graphite transfer paper and a mechanical pencil to transfer the drawings onto the canvas. Redrawing them from scratch onto the canvas would be a bad idea. So often it’s impossible to get the same result. I drew them once, why do it again?

Shadows
I created all the shadows with a set of Copic Warm Gray markers using the original drawing as reference. I also followed my digital mock-up as reference for the background shadows.

Highlights
Probably my favorite part but the most tedious, I painted in the light areas using Daler Rowney’s Pro White paint. It’s kind of like a white gauche. Often you have to keep layering to get the desired look, but this allows you to build up, giving you extra control. I tried to maintain a single main light-source, but overall took liberties where I felt it would make the piece stronger.

Color
I decided early on I would use a limited palette, adding hints of color and trying not to over do it. I mainly used the Copic markers for color. Since the canvas is a tonal mat-board, color doesn’t show up like on white. Areas where I want color to really stand out, I first have to paint over with the white.

Lines
Time to reinforce the line work. So far all the lines were mainly the graphite from the transfer paper. I now go in and re-line all of the artwork using Micron pens ranging from burnt umber, brown and black, depending on what I want to make “pop.”

Pure Blacks
Using Higgins Black Magic ink, I paint in all of the areas I wanted pure black. This is easy to overdo, so I must be selective. Pure blacks tend to bring things to the foreground, an effect you don’t always want. I used the pure blacks to guide the viewer’s eye around the piece.

Pure Whites and Highlights
Going back through the entire piece I reinforced light areas I really wanted to “pop” by making them pure white.

Finishing Touches
I could probably spend another 100 hours adding gags and fun elements all over the piece, but I refrain. Just enough to get a few messages across.

Finished Piece
Hope you enjoyed the piece and tutorial. You can see the original at ISCA Con 2016!