Spock Model Kit Illustration Step By Step

As promised, here's a step-by-step look at how I drew my recent Mr. Spock Model Kit illustration. 

It was drawn all in Photoshop, on a ton of separate layers. Each step shown represents a different layer. I combined a few for this post, just so we wouldn't be here all day. In all there were fifty four layers.

It all starts with a box.

I added a white border around the edges of the box, as well as a dividing line.

Next I added the blue box at the left. Exciting, isn't it?

Then I added the logos at the side. The Star Trek logo was hand drawn. There are some Trek fonts out there that I probably could have downloaded and used, but I like recreating logos by hand. I didn't spend a huge amount of time on it, I just traced over the real logo with the pen tool in Photoshop. I also traced it vertically as it's seen here, instead of horizontally as I normally would. That was a first for me.

I briefly considered going the Wacky Packages route and making it say Star Dreck or something like that, but in the end decided to stick with the real name.

The AMT logo was fairly simple, just a red box with rounded corners and typeset text. I couldn't find a perfect match for the real font, but I won't tell if you won't.

Next I added a black outline around the edge of the box.

And lastly I added the text in the upper right corner. The "Mr. Spock" was also hand drawn, because I couldn't find a font that matched it exactly. The white tag line underneath was simple typeset text.

These graphic design elements were the easiest and quickest parts of the project, taking just an hour or two.

Next I started on the background. I had an image of the actual box art on a layer, and would constantly turn it on and off and check it to see if my colors matched and if I was getting the clouds and mountains and such right. I used a splotchy Photoshop brush to match the painterly look as well as I could.

I then added the distant mountains in the background, with suitable shading. Note that for some reason I wasted time drawing the reflections of the mountains in the water, even though they were totally covered up in the next step.

Next up I added the brownish middle ground. I learned my lesson from the previous layer and didn't bother detailing that plain area near the right, because it would end up being covered by the three-headed snake. No sense spending time on something that'll never be seen, right?

I then added the foreground rocks. I was just blocking in shapes here and planned to color that grey mound at the right a light brown, but then changed my mind and decided to do that on a separate layer.

I added the sandy soil, including the snakes "nest," over the rocks on another layer.

It's kind of hard to see unless you zoom in, but I added some sand effects to the nest on a separate layer.

Why do I use so many layers, you ask? Ease of use, and so I don't destroy all my hard work, that's why. If I drew the sand effect on the mound and then decided I didn't like it, I'd be screwed. By adding the sand on its own layer, if it didn't come out right the first time I could erase it and try again, with no harm done to the art below.

Also, by using layers I can adjust the size and color of an element without affecting anything else on the page (like when I realized Spock's left hand was larger than his right, and had to fix it). I'd be totally lost without layers.

Next I added a little patch of grass near the bottom center.

And then drew the alien plant and dead trees in the background.

Next I drew the wispy "smoke" in the center. I'm not quite sure what this stuff is supposed to be. Volcanic plumes? Noxious gas escaping from the planet? I have no idea.

It's actually starting to look like a proper background now.

I then added the tiny Enterprise zooming overhead in the upper left corner. The ship generally didn't ever fly this low on the show— chalk it up to artistic license.

Lastly I added the ship's exhaust trails. And that's it! The background's finally done! Whew! On to the next step.

Now it's time for the characters. I copied the background art pretty closely, but I wanted the actual figures to be more in line with my usual cartoony style. Wacky, even.

First up is the three headed snake. As you might expect by now, each of the snake's heads was drawn on a separate layer. I drew the foreground snake first.

Then I added various details on another layer.

Then I drew the middle snake.

And his details on another layer.

And lastly the far snake.

And of course his details.

I added a few scales on a separate layer, and played with the opacity until I thought they looked right. That's another advantage to using layers— you can adjust the opacity or how they interact with the layers below them.

Next I drew the shaded ridges on the snakes' bellies.

And lastly I added irregular white highlights to their bodies, to make it look like their skin's glistening. And that's it for the snake!

Hopefully it reads as one snake with three heads, and not three separate snakes crowding out of that hole. When I look at it, sometimes I see it as one, other times as three. The same thing happens when I look at the original box art though, so I'm blaming the source material.

Now it's time to add the focus of the box, Spock.

I started with his face, and added a few rough features.

Next I added his hair, eyes and his trademark upswept eyebrows.

I added his left ear on its own layer, so I could detail it without messing up the rest of his face. I made this ear a bit darker so it wouldn't blend in with his nose.

Then I drew his blue science-division shirt.

And next his legs and boots.

I added his left arm and hand, holding what I assume is supposed to be his communicator. Note that it doesn't look anything like the prop used on the show. I went back and forth as to whether I should draw him holding the actual communicator or the inaccurate version seen on the box art. 

In the end the "wrong" one won out. I figured since I was recreating the box art, I might as well go with that version.

Next I drew his right arm. Again, it's drawn on its own layer so I could shade it without affecting the shirt underneath. 

Spock's limbs underwent quite a few changes as I was working on him. They looked OK in the sketch, but once I drew them for real, I realized they were way too long, which made him awkward and gawky looking. Also his left hand, which is farther from the viewer, was originally much larger than his right hand, which just ain't right.

Fortunately because all these parts were drawn on separate layers, it was easy to fix them.

I drew Spock's inaccurate phaser next. It's closer to the TV version than the communicator is, but it's still not right.

I just realized that Spock looks very incomplete without his Starfleet emblem and rank stripes. Naked, even!

Next I added many the details to his face and shirt. I added a 5 o'clock shadow around his mouth and a bit of red to his nose, to help give his face some life. I also added the "eye shadow" he always had on his lids (look at any photo of Spock— honest to god it looks like he's wearing dark grey eye shadow). 

I then added the aforementioned Starfleet emblem and rank stripes, plus his tricorder strap.

Then I drew wrinkles on his shirt and pants. On a separate layer of course. There was lots of drawing and erasing and redrawing of wrinkles before I was satisfied with them.

Next I added the phaser blast. Hopefully he's got it on stun and not disintegrate. I also added his tricorder, visible just under his right wrist. Not much to it, it's pretty much just a black square.

And that's it for Spock! There were only two things left to do.

I added some shading/aging around the edges and corners of the box, just so it wouldn't look quite so pristine.

And lastly added my signature in the lower right corner.

So there you have it. A recreation of the Spock model kit box art, in only thirty nine easy steps. Actually there were a lot more steps than that, as you could probably tell; a lot of them got combined here.

Once again, here's the original box for comparison, in case you've never seen it (which is a real possibility, since it's first appeared in the 1970s).

Here's an animated gif of the entire process.

Dr. Killdeath & Count Gothula's Venomous Christmas Step By Step

Now that my 2013 Xmas Card Slash Book is finally finished I thought I'd post a step by step look at how I work for the two or three people out there who may be interested.

I picked a page featuring both the main characters, so you can see how I drew the two of them.

It all starts with a sketch of course. Sometimes I sketch with pen and paper, sometimes I sketch right on the screen in Photoshop. This is a pen and paper sketch. I scanned the pen and paper sketch, then dropped it onto a page in Photoshop. I then typed in the text below.

The entire book was created in Photoshop, by the way (with the exception of the cover logo, which was done in InDesign).

The original sketch of the characters looked a bit wonky (artist's term meaning not very good) so I did a second, digital sketch. This one came out a lot better, as the characters are much more on-model. The sketch is on its own layer, so I can change its transparency and turn it off when it's no longer needed. 

I use a lot of layers on these drawings. A lot. Like 75 or more for a page like this. Layers are your friend. When you use a lot of layers, it makes it easier to change elements when you inevitably decide to do so.

Next I added a background color, complete with a sloppily-painted gradation in the center. Don't worry, I made it sloppy on purpose, to mimic the feel of a painted kid's book.

I then started blocking out Dr. Killdeath's shapes, starting with his head. I added shading and other appropriate details as well.

In actual practice I would lower the transparency of the sketch layer and then use it as a guide to draw the colors underneath it. I thought that would be too confusing here though, so I deleted it. If you want, just pretend you can still see the Dr. Killdeath sketch.

I then blocked out the Doctor's body and legs. All these elements are on different layers, of course.

Next I added the Doctor's glass dome and the rivets that fasten it to his skull. The dome is on a layer underneath his head.

I drew his brain next, on its own layer.

As I mentioned in the Behind The Scenes post, I seem to have a lot of trouble drawing brains and getting all the fiddly little folds to look just right. So once I drew the Doctor's brain once, I copied and pasted it on every page. Yep, Dr. Killdeath's brain is the exact same piece of art throughout the entire card slash book.

Next I added the fiddly little brain folds I just spoke of.

And then I added the bubbles, to help sell the idea that his brain is floating in some sort of nutrient tank. The bubbles were on their own layer of course, and I dialed down their opacity so they'd be semi-transparent.

Next I added the inside of his head, behind the brain. It's a subtle thing, but it makes him look a bit more three dimensional instead of a flat cartoon.

Then I added some defining lines to his head and body. I let the shapes beneath the lines define their color. For example, the Doctor's lab coat is a light blue, so the coat's lines are a darker blue. 


Colored lines give the piece more visual interest than plain black ones would.

The next thing I added was a white glare to his glass dome. It's kind of hard to see here, so you may have to zoom in.

Then I added some red on his forehead, nose and cheeks. The red's on its own layer, so I could adjust the transparency. It's amazing to me how just a little touch of red can add a ton of life to a character.

Lastly I added a white outline around the Doctor. I started doing that a few years ago with the Santataur Is Comin' To Town card slash book. It helps make the character pop a bit and separate them from the background.

The outline is on its own layer, and I think I dialed down the opacity to 85%.

By the way, here are all the layers it takes to make Dr. Killdeath. 14 in all. Actually that's a pretty low count for me. Some of my characters are made of two or three times that many layers.

Still, 14 is a lot, and it can get confusing when you're searching through the menu for a particular layer. That's why I arrange all my layers inside folders. It takes a little extra time to set up, but it's worth it in the long run.

Plus you place all the layers inside a folder, it acts like a single layer. You can move the folder, scale it or change its opacity and all the contents will react accordingly.

So that's it for Dr. Killdeath! On to Count Gothula.

I started on the Count by blocking out his head (on a separate layer).

By the way, I had electronic model sheets of both characters that I could refer to, to help me draw them the same way on every page. I used the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to sample their various skin and clothing colors to make sure those were consistent as well.

Next I drew the Count's body and legs.

And then I added his red collar on another layer. I used the pen tool to draw the collar. It was a lot quicker than trying to paint the curves with a brush. With 28 pages to draw I had to save time wherever I could.

Next I added his right arm.

And then-- you guessed it-- his left arm.

Once again, by putting all these parts on their own layer, it's a lot easier to make changes. For example, if the Count's entire body was on the same layer and I decided I wanted to redraw his right arm and hand, I'd end up erasing most of his body in the process.

But because his arm is separate, changes made to it don't affect the parts underneath.

Then I added the colored defining lines to him. Count Gothula always gets two stray hairs on top of his head.

Next I added the Count's facial spots. I'm not exactly sure what these are supposed to be or why they're there. Maybe they're some kind of vampire liver spots? Whatever they are, he didn't look complete without 'em.

The spots were in a specific pattern that's the same on each page. Three in the lower left corner of his face, one in the upper left corner, and then two in the upper right.

I know what you're thinking right now: "Bob's got Aspergers!"

Then the Count get a bit of red on the end of his nose. It's on a layer with the opacity dialed down, just like the Doctor's.

And lastly I added the outline around the Count.

OK, so much for the characters. Now let's tackle the background.

Now that the characters were done, it was time to start on the background. I added a new layer and drew a floor.

Next I added another layer and painted in the shattered walls on both sides of the page.

I then locked that layer so that the brush would only affect the walls. Then I started shading the walls to give them some depth.

I wanted it to look like light was streaming in from outside, so I added wall shadows to the floor.

Next I painted in some rubble on the floor, to sell the idea that one of the Doctor's "gifts" had knocked a hole in the castle wall.

And then I added the shadows cast by the rubble.

And I added the shadows cast by the Count and the Doctor. All of these shadows are on separate layers of course, so I could play with the opacity of them.

We're in the home stretch now!

Next I added the dissipating image of Santa. The idea here is that Santa, who figured prominently on the page before this, has now teleported back to the North Pole, and what we're seeing here is his ghostly afterimage.

The Santa Cloud was drawn on its own later with a rough, scratchy brush. I made the Cloud orange to suggest fire and brimstone.

Next I played around with the Santa Cloud, using Photoshop to warp and skew it like it's made of wispy smoke. I also adjusted the opacity to make it look like it's slowly fading away to nothing.

Lastly I added yellowing and aging effects to the page, as if it were from a thirty or forty year old book. Needless to say, these aging effects were on their own layers. You have to restrain yourself when you're adding aging to something, as it's very easy to go overboard. In fact I may have gone too far here.

I have a confession to make: these aging effects-- the yellowish tint and the dark smudges-- are the exact same ones I first created for 2009 Christmas Card. I've been reusing them ever since. Hey, they work, so why waste time recreating them? Why not recycle them?

And voila! Only 32 simple steps from start to finish. Actually there were many more steps to drawing the page than I've shown here; these are just the major ones! Then I repeated the process 27 more times and before I knew it I had a book!