Loco X poster process

[loco]

I thought I would share my process to coming up with the X poster I'm doing.
I missed the X /Detroit Cobras tour that was done awhile back. I caught this one and just wanted to show you all how I came up with the Idea and lind the little things that go through my head.

First I did some sketching (thumbnails) until I went with this.
I sketched it as a 11"x17" and then made a copy scale down to 8.5"x11"
so I could scan it.



-loco

[loco]

Then I took the image into phopshop and adjusted the levels to get the midtones out. the took it into illustrator and did a Live Trace.
After looking at it I didn't like the way it looked. I knew that I would have to retrace it with the pen tool to get the lines clean and sharp.



-loco

[loco]

I retaced the image in illustrator by clicked and bending the pen tool. I added things along the way that I thought helped the image. Some detail in the skull, extra curve lines in the wings and light grey shading in the wings. I retarced the skull pretty much as it was. I liked the wing on the right side so I traced that one and mirror that one and put on the other side. I did the same with the sombero, flames and swirls



-loco

[loco]

Once I had it to this point I made 11"x17" printout so I could sketch of these printouts with pencil. The images are kind of bad. I can not find my camera so I used my web cam to take snap shots. Since I going to mirror this I only sketched one side.



-loco

[loco]

I did the same thing with swirls that are on the four corners. Web cam shot



-loco

[loco]

I just kept at it doing little things and playing with gray shading.
Alot of fine tuning of the lines



-loco

[loco]

At this point I felt the sombero still needed something. I thought of a rooster head. I found this image online and retraced it loco style





-loco

[el Jefe]

looking great!

[loco]

Here's the corner swirls after I retraced them



-loco

[Manuel]

Loco- you need to print up some more shirts!