HERDING THE CATS RUNNING AROUND IN MY HEAD

Through my whole life people have asked me how I know what to draw. How did I see the picture in my head? It's kinda hard to explain if you don't experience it. It's like trying to describe something exactly from a dream. You see it but every detail isn't quite there. Certain main things are there and that's the easy part. The rest you can logically kinda fill in. Sorta.

It is elusive. Like herding cats at times.

Funny thing is the idea for the main picture I'm going to write about  started with a dream. Clearly influenced by bubblegum cards from my childhood and some Salvador Dali. Right before I woke up I saw this image. Basically all the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back forming an image of  Darth Vader. So I sketch it up. I started with a basic line drawing of Vader.

Taking one step back before this I did draw a simple line drawing of Vader as the base for the image. Based on the lines I envisioned what lines could be shared lines of the base Vader image. Some weren't there but I incorporated some where I could. Like Bossk's shoulder and Vader's mask.

Once I knew who was going where then I went ahead and fleshed out the image and figured I'd tackle each one separately. I did question if I should maybe try doing this as one big image instead. Yeah, no. 

So I thought Fett would be the easiest. He's awesome and I was really into it.

Yeah well the initial sketch was cool and there are things I really like but clearly his head is off center and his right shoulder is wonky. I also had to reference his rifle because it is different in Empire and Jedi. Image still wasn't working for me.

So I tried this idea and once I finished the line drawing I grabbed some markers and filled it in. Again. the idea has potential but that's not it. Plus the orange background wasn't going to work. Thought was to have swirling clouds around him from Cloud City to help form lines in Vader's helmet.

Then I saw it. I separated the clouds from Boba and I could see it. Here's that moment people ask about. I don't know how I saw it but it was there. Seemed obvious to me. But I had to take the image to this point to see it. I stopped several times and came back to this picture. I knew this other version wasn't it but I had to keep going. Just felt compelled to keep on. 

So here it was. Clouds the same. I realized my dimensions were off and it was boring. So I gave him his rifle and made a smoking barrel instead of clouds. The background for all the other hunters is a blue-green-grey color. So away with the orange.

Now his rifle looked stupid. This looked like a canon. Not a rifle.

Changed the rifle then it was all good.

I colored it up in Photoshop referencing a million pictures and action figures. I found a pretty clean image online and saved it. I opened in Photoshop and sampled the colors for my pallet.  Not only is his rifle different but the  color of his suit and armor is a tinge different from Return of the Jedi.

Still working on the ultimate assembling of the colored versions. But here's the B&W with the whole gang.

In the end I'd say about 70 hours went into this one. Like I said though, still one or two more colored versions to come.

Almost there. Two more cats running loose.