Addressing the many questions received from fans, IDW Transformers artist Sarah Stone has posted on
her Tumblr a step-by-step breakdown of her creative process, specifically about the
More than Meets the Eye #33 30th Anniversary cover variant. Find out more
here, and check out some mirrored images below!
I get a lot of questions about my process so I thought it’d be cool to break down and talk about some of my steps for illustrating covers! I hope this is helpful or interesting, it’s not quite a tutorial but perhaps it’s a glimpse into my thought process.
Step 1 | Thumbnail. The point here is to do several very fast, small, drawings, so you can’t get hung up on details. Here I’m thinking most about composition and subject. I had four originally and this one was picked to get finished.
Step 2 | Sketch. I draw on top of my thumbnail, nailing down more of the actual details. I fix any proportion isssues but I still try not to waste too much time making final lines, the sketch will go away in the end, so it just needs to be good enough for me.
[...]
Stage 9 | Final Lights. I add a harsh white rim light to both of the figures, really pulling them away from the background to finalize the painting.