Wesley Eggebrecht es un ilustrador y diseñador freelance del norte de Michigan. TransWorld Snowboarding es quizá una de las revistas americana de más importancia dentro del mundillo de la nieve. Quiso el destino que una postal hecha por Wesley fuera a caer dentro del buzón de Dustin Koop, director de arte de la revista. El primer encargo fué ilustrar la columna de la correspondencia para el número de septiembre de este año. ¿El segundo? Ilustrar la cubierta de la 2011 Gear Guide, además de varias ilustraciones para el interior de la revista. Es decir, básicamente darle un tema al número especial e ilustrarlo. Según Koop, Wesley a tenido éxito gracias a algunas de sus virtudes, como son trabajar rápido y ser capaz de entender e implementar lo que el cliente quiere al diseño… rápidamente.

Una vez hecha la introducción, y visto que uno nunca sabe por que camino le puede salir un trabajo, lo que quería era mostraros las imágenes del proceso con el que se llegó a la portada definitiva, y del cual, por desgracia, muy raramente podemos disfrutar. Supongo que la gran mayoría sabéis que una ilustración (o un diseño, o una fotografía) no se crea en un instante. Detrás hay unas pruebas, modificaciones, elecciones, etc. que el público final muchas veces ni se imagina. Estas imágenes nos muestran algunos de los puntos más importantes del proceso.

Por si las imágenes os saben a poco, os dejo también la entrevista (en inglés) que la propia revista le hizo a Wesley, donde le preguntan un poco sobre su background y, lo más interesante, sobre la evolución del proyecto. Además, podéis echarle un vistazo al vídeo que tiene colgado en su perfil de YouTube para ver como dibuja.

—What’s your background in, excuse the term, “action sports”?
—I’ve always been into “action sports”. At an early age, my parents brought my brother and sisters and I night skiing near our home in Northern Michigan. It was a blast. Once I switched to snowboarding though, I never skied again. Boarding is too much fun. I also messed around with skateboarding, wakeboarding, and a little BMX riding as well.

—Have you ever ridden or been to mountains as big as the ones you drew?
—I’ve been lucky to snowboard in Canada a couple times which was a nice change from Northern Michigan, but it’s nothing like what people are riding out West. I’m still waiting for the opportunity to get out there and tear it up.

—How specific of an assignment were you given for this cover illustration?
—When I first got the e-mail from [TWS Art Director] Koop, I though I was illustrating some monsters over some product shots. I had no idea I would get to do the whole cover, products, monsters, environment, and all. When I found that out, I was super stoked as any illustrator would be. It gave me a chance to bring it to the next level, and I was very happy with the final.

—Did you know what the cover would look like from the beginning or does it reveal itself as you’re drawing?
—The cover revealed itself. Once I knew what products were going to be featured on the cover, the drawing kind of took off. I love drawing monsters and weird creatures of all types and it was just a matter of creating a composition that displayed the products and also allowed me to have fun with the monsters. It was a great project.

—How long did it take you from start to finish?
—Koop had some great ideas and we went back and forth for about a week and a half before the cover was completed.

—What medium did you use to draw this? What was the process?
—My illustration process is pretty straightforward. First I rough out my idea with a couple quick loose sketches. After I get the approval on which one to go forward with, I work on a series of more detailed cleaned up versions. Once there are no more revisions I go forward to draw the final line art with pencil and paper. I scan the drawing and use Photoshop for the coloring process. This allows me to work fast and make color changes quickly. All of this is done using a WACOM Cintiq, my favorite tool besides a real pencil.

—I recall that Koop requested you to make the monsters on the cover “less scary.” How do you do that-erase some fangs and blood or …?
—Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Get rid of some fangs and erase some extra lines. When you get rid of lines it makes the overall feel softer and more like a cartoon. I would have liked to make them even creepier and twisted, Haha!

—Which of the section openers was the hardest to conceive of for an illustration? I’m going to guess alternative camber section …
—Definitely the alternative camber section, how do you draw a monster based around how a board flexes? The only thing I could think of was having a monster that was twisting himself and having some of his body parts twisted. I think the result came out pretty sick.

—Have you seen the issue on the newsstands yet? Thoughts?
—Not yet, but I can’t wait! Every time I pass a magazine rack I stop and look. I think with the illustrated cover and the choice of colors it’s going to just pop. I am so jazzed.

Si queréis leer la entrada original (en inglés), podéis hacerlo en el blog de TransWorld Snowboarding.

Tags: 2011 Gear Guide, evolución proyecto, ilustración, snowboarding, TransWorld Snowboarding, Wesley Eggebrecht

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 at 09:30 and is filed under Diseño, Técnica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.