"Fun With Helium" ("Up")
Since this picture wasn't going to contain the most cerebral of jokes, I decided it was a good time to not only experiment on different techniques but also limit myself on how the picture was going to turn out. For example, my goal was to have Erik floating high above the air. But instead of drawing grassy hills or dark silouettes of mountains like I usually do, I forced myself to depict scenery more common in farm areas. Of course in ink the landscape looked awful so I blurred it greatly and filtered it through the watercolor feature of Photoshop. And while I did eventually place hills far in the background, I took great strides in making sure they were faint enough that it would blend into the sky. Speaking of which, I played around with various brushes to see if I could get a more realistic cloud effect. It still doesn't look completely real, but it's much closer than the more cartoonish ones I typically crank out.
Then there were the balloons that were carefully drawn individually. Well actually, I drew one ballon and then made a stencil out of cardboard so all the balloons retained the same shape. Between the pencil and finished stages, the little loose balloon lips had to be lost. But in it's place I made sure every visual balloon end had a string that perfectly lined up to Erik's palm. Yes, I realize if I were going to be very realistic, I would made balloons jet at an angle. However by the time I caught my mistake, the illustration was almost complete.
A few glaring problems aside, my feeling is this drawing came out pretty good. - Jake