Mike Tofanelli Illustration Process

Mike Tofanelli Gives the Dish on his Illustration Process

Article Transcript

This is an illustration assignment I did last summer for Westchester Magazine, a full page opener for their 914 section. It accompanied a humorous opinion article about the new “MyPlate” food guide, introduced to the American public by Michelle Obama and the USDA. The premise was that a lot of people find the guide more confusing than educational.

Preliminary Sketches, Brainstorming
The beginning of any illustration starts with small thumbnail sketches (fig. 1). These are not intended to show the art director but just to help me figure out what will work visually. These are quick and rough and I’ll do as many as it takes. I’m not getting hung up on details here; my main focus is composition and concept. At the same time, I am going through reference photos of Michelle Obama and working on her likeness. The sketch on the above right (fig. 2) evolved from a thumbnail and is one of two sketches that I scanned in and emailed to the art director. You can see the indication of a masthead. It’s important for me to know its placement and not let any important elements interfere with it. This is the one that got approved.

Typically, I submit one or two sketches, as part of my responsibility is to weed out the lame ideas. As an editorial illustrator, I’m hired for my way of thinking as well as my artistic style.

Acrylic Underpainting
I print out my approved sketch at a comfortable painting size, around 11”x14”, about 125% of final reproduction size. I tape the sketch to a sheet of cold press illustration board and using a graphite sheet under the sketch, I trace over the sketch to transfer it to the board. I refine and redraw my drawing on the board using 2h or h graphite pencils and/or Verithin’s brown, black, and terra cotta colored pencils.

With the drawing on the board, I now begin my monochromatic underpainting in acrylics (fig. 3). I use a limited palette of umbers and siennas, adding ultramarine blue for my darker mixtures. My brushes are nylon sable (synthetic) rounds. They are resilient and keep a good point, allowing me to draw as well as lay down tone. I establish value patterns keeping my paint fairly transparent so I don’t lose the information in my drawing. It’s especially important for me to reinforce the details in the faces which carry so much interest in this piece. Not concerned with color at this point.

I then cover my board with a transparent wash of yellow oxide/raw sienna using a flat 1˝ brush (fig. 4). This warm veil of tone gives me a great surface to judge my colors and values against and unifies my underpainting. I’ll take a 10-15 minute break and allow this to dry.

Acrylic Rendering
I expand my palette to include alizarin crimson, cadmium red light hue, cadmium yellow deep hue, veridian green, ivory black, and titanium white, and start applying local color to flesh, clothing, background, etc. I begin with “given” colors like the flesh, and as you can see in fig. 4, I’ve started with the two faces on the upper right. The idea is to lay in a midtone translucently so I can still see my underpainting, and then block in lights and highlights (more opaque) and dark tones (transparent to translucent). As I model the forms, I keep mindful of the direction of my light source.

I decide my background should be a light value, and yellow will fit the mood of the piece. Establishing this will help greatly in my remaining color decisions. Fig. 5 shows some of the faces starting to come alive.

My painting is achieving volume and form and I like where it’s headed in fig. 6. I will stop short of final rendering and will save that for my next and final phase in Photoshop.

Going Digital
I scan my painting at 355 dpi. Of course my painting is too large for my scanner so I scan it in two pieces and join them together in Photoshop. Yeah, that part’s a pain but watcha gonna do? Once the scans are pieced together and color adjustments made, I can now start painting using my 21" Cintiq.

For this final “polishing up” stage, I will paint in RGB and choose colors directly from my painting with the eyedropper tool. Flesh, clothing, background, etc. will be painted on separate layers allowing me to tweak one element independent of the whole. I don’t use a big variety of brushes, just the basic hard and soft round brushes along with the #24 brush.

Before going too far, I drop the MyPlate graphic into the painting on its own layer. I skewed it approximately beforehand, and once in place, I fine tune and skew the perspective until it’s just right. I also lay some brush strokes over the top of it to tie it to its surroundings so it’s less foreign.

Next, I zoom in on important details. In fig. 7 you can see Michelle’s face before (left) and after digital refinement (right). Using a soft round brush and opacity set around 85%, I’ll smooth rough transitions using existing colors in her face. I strengthen highlights and make sure dark accents carry enough weight. I deepen the darks in her hair and define strands with the #24 brush, and I’ve also decided to brighten Michelle’s dress.

These are the type of refinements I will make throughout the rest of the illustration, but will be selective where I lavish my attention. I do not wish to “over model” digitally as I like some of my traditional painted hand to show through.

Around mid morning of deadline day I deem it finished, flatten the file, convert to a CMYK tif, and send it to the art director using yousendit.com. An email back from the art director telling me she loves it makes my day. Here is the final illustration (fig. 8).

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Mike Tofanelli is a freelance illustrator and party caricaturist based in Elk Grove, California. His illustrations have appeared in numerous national and regional publications. His work has also been included in American Illustration 27, 29, and 31. Find more of Mike’s work at www.miketofanelli.com and visit his blog at www.miketofanelli.wordpress.com