Illegal Alien

It's an illegal alien making a run for the border!

If you look through my blog you'll notice that most of the characters in my illustrations tend to be standing in static poses, like they're waiting on a bus or in a police lineup. So I thought it was time to shake things up a little and try some new poses.

Some behind the scenes info: I know it doesn't look like it, but I struggled mightily with the background on this one. The drawing was simple and didn't take any time at all, but that background... The trouble was that I had a half-baked idea in my head to have swatches of color trailing behind the alien (sort of like speed lines), but try as I might I just could not get it to work onscreen.

Here's what I'm talking about. As you can see, it's just not working. Sometimes you can have a picture in your head that's just not possible to get onto the page. This is one of those times. I finally gave up the original plan and went with a standard painterly color patch background.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch of the alien with those cursed speed lines.