Process For 'End of Friendship' Illustration

This is a project I did recently and it was a story about the end of a friendship. Two women who where friends while their children were babies started growing apart as their children got older because they couldn't get along.
When I read this story the yellow brick road kept popping into my head. Paths in other words, as we all make choices that alter our lives in some small way or big.
So here I am with my own yellow brick road to go down and came up with a few concepts to pitch.


Concept 1


Concept 2


Concept 3

These are fairly finished roughs with a colour map. The colour maps are there for both the art director and myself. Surprises can be disastrous... so I try to keep far away from those situations. But then you never know what can happen. Sometimes it all has to change if I'm not conveying what the story is saying.

It was decided that Concept 1 fit the story. I usually work at a B5 size, maybe a bit longer. The finished size was to be 14 x 10 in the magazine.
I stretch the paper and start once it is dried. I have two methods I use to transfer which is the light box or tracing paper. Depending where I am and what is available.
Then the painting comes in. After that I take it into computer for any digital work to done. In this particular one I used digital colouring around the children as I was still indecisive as to what colour should go around them and instead of making it impossibly difficult for me I decided to rely on digital coloring. Handy thing.


Finished Product