Last September, my friend Stephen Christy and his partner Dominique were married. You may recognize Stephen's name––He was an integral part of bringing Archaia back from it's early collapse, in shepherding the deal between Archaia and Henson, and for being the film liaison for a Mouse Guard movie since the earliest offers came in right up to being a producer on the FOX movie we started.
I was contacted by a friend of Stephen's who wanted to commission me to draw the Santa Barbara Courthouse where they had their ceremony for him to give as a wedding gift.
I accepted the commission and started with going through lots of publicly available photos of the building as well as a few 3D models on shared model libraries. Once I had a photo, I printed it out and then on a light pad, drew a refined pencil version––tracing the form, but also interpreting how I'd manage the details and complexity in just line and texture.
With the pencil drawing done, I scanned it into photoshop and sized it to match the final art (10" x 10"). I also tinted the linework to make it easier to see for the next step, and painted in some areas where I knew I wanted to add shadows with texture. The last step was to add a horizontal line guide to help me when it came tim to ink something in the sky area.
A printout of that version was taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore bristol, and on my lightpad I was able to do the final inked drawing with Copic Multiliner SP pens.
There was a lot of structural detail to get right in the tower, the arch and the windows, so I used a slightly smaller nib size than I normally would, and then built up the stippling for the shadows slowly to make sure I was never losing the forms of the architecture.
I was honored to get to draw a piece to be gifted to Stephen and Dom for their wedding. Happy Anniversary!
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