Measuring Sports Performance - Illustration process

I recently completed this illustration on "Measuring Sports Performance". I liked the idea of combining the peak of an athletic movement with a measuring device, in this case a graph.



Here is the process behind the piece. I started off with a few roughs, then finalized a pencil sketch:



At this stage, reference is very important. After spending some time on Google, I was pretty comfortable with the action of the movement, as well as the clothes and construction of the hurdle. I was surprised that the hand was so relaxed and open during the hurdle jump, but even so I decided to contrast a fist with an open hand in the illustration. (Note these images are copyright of their respective authors.)



Taking this to the lightbox, I made a tight pencil sketch, which I inked with brush and ink. On my last post about process, I remember saying I use digital inking. I still do, but I also love the feel of a brush and ink. I guess I enjoy switching between the two.



From this, I scanned in the artwork (600 dpi bitmap) which I proceed to colour, add in the graph, as well as change the colour of some of the linework, leading to the final work, at the beginning of this post.