Lunatec is a story about a young extraterrestrial who resides in the moon. Her civilization has decayed over the millennia and she is alone. But one day, an astronaut from Earth crash lands on the moon. This is the beginning of a great adventure to the center of our solar system, discovering one's own strength and making friends along the way!
The book is self published. Please check out the Lunatec Website for more details.
Where to begin? What do these characters look like? What composition am I going to build? What tools will I use?
These are all very basic questions facing an illustrator. How you approach your process is all very personalized, however I started with basis sketches. Then, I photoshop references onto the sketches to get my base layer. From there I illustrate my primary strokes, defining the palette for each spread, and sketching in any details that I want to swing back around to in the final pass. And then polish polish render with every stroke of the stylus.
These are all very basic questions facing an illustrator. How you approach your process is all very personalized, however I started with basis sketches. Then, I photoshop references onto the sketches to get my base layer. From there I illustrate my primary strokes, defining the palette for each spread, and sketching in any details that I want to swing back around to in the final pass. And then polish polish render with every stroke of the stylus.
This book was finished before GenAI was widely available, so you can be sure it's all hand drawn by me - the artist. Each spread is between 20-40 hours of total working time, spread over 4 years of drawing in between my full-time work.
From the very beginning. Whether we live in cities or out near the wilderness, the moon is always there in its phases for us to admire. But just what is the moon? Surely not cheese?!
The two main characters have met and Luna gives Bae a tour down into the sub-surface city.
Line art
Final Composition
Barren but beautiful Mercury
A scene from later in the picture book where Luna and her earthling friend Bae encounter the people who catch solar fish near the heat of the sun....
Sometimes thoughts make things materialize like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not all thoughts are positive and optimistic, but that's okay!