Cute to creepy

Last week, I posted the work in progress videos of this drawing. I thought it would be interesting to share another part of the process - work on the source material to get the shot I drew from.

This is an original product shot of the puppet I bought - by ODN if anyone wants one, seen here in a different colourway but you get the idea.

He was far too new and shiny to belong to dear old Stephen so I dirtied him down. His hat was soaked to make the brim sag and the fibres roughed up to age it, same with his bow tie. The wooden areas were scuffed up with sandpaper and scored with a knife to give him that well played with look. I then added further staining with charcoal dust and coffee grounds rubbed in to create the effect of years of built up grime.

This is a photograph I took in my dark box, as you can see some changes were made in the final image as I always do a final 'edit' as I draw, cutting out the distracting background light and focusing in on the top half of the figure to bring us in close to that wonderful expression.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek at a part of the creative process people don't often see - the original artwork is available here.