CLIMATE STRIKE!
Feburary 2020
Feburary 2020
This piece was inspired by all the Fridays for Future climate strikers – especially the young and indigenous – taking to the streets in order to demand better climate policies from world leaders. I hope this piece will inspire people to unite and join in on the fight to save our planet, protecting it for generations to come.
☾ Look for & join your local climate strike here.
☾ Available to purchase as a poster here.
Inspiration
The first thing I did was to research images from the global climate strikes. I wanted the final illustration to be as representative of the entire movement as possible, and to show diversity. I also wanted to make sure the signage in my illustration would feel authentic.
Sketches & Thumbnails
After narrowing down the scope of my inspiration pool, I practiced with some quick doodles, then quickly moved on to developing thumbnails. I went with the first one, as I liked the movement in the composition. I also annotated each part of the composition, like a diagram, so I knew which reference to use when moving from one part of the drawing to the next (it gets confusing!).
As you can see, I also transferred the thumb composition over to my sketch composition via a grid system, which I normally don't do but I did find it very helpful in this case. It didn't transfer over 1:1 completely, but didn't have to as it was already quite a busy composition!
Final Sketch & Inking
Developing the final sketch took the most amount of time, as it was like working through lots of little individual character designs. I based each person in this piece off real life people, but overall tried to stay loose and true to my style (without relying too much on the references). The inking took significantly less time, but was still a challenge, as I can be quite a perfectionist when it comes to capturing facial details.
At the end, the final drawing is a composite of mostly 1 x final inked drawing, plus a few other drawings I decided to redraw. All of these parts were "composited" together in photoshop, where I also made a few edits to the drawing in general.
Final Colour
I exported the drawing to Procreate as I like how efficiently you can colour within the software. Still, it took a long time, about 6+ hours! I wanted the overall colour palette to have a green "aura".
I exported the drawing to Procreate as I like how efficiently you can colour within the software. Still, it took a long time, about 6+ hours! I wanted the overall colour palette to have a green "aura".
Adding Textures & Finalizing
After finishing the colour in Procreate, I exported the illustration back to Photoshop, where I added some final colour adjustments & textures. So finally, after a combined ~23 hours, the piece was done!
After finishing the colour in Procreate, I exported the illustration back to Photoshop, where I added some final colour adjustments & textures. So finally, after a combined ~23 hours, the piece was done!
It is available to purchase on demand as a poster here.
Details
Video Process
All images © Kat J. Weiss 2020. Do not reproduce without
the expressed written consent of Kat J. Weiss.
the expressed written consent of Kat J. Weiss.
