The Scribble Picture Series
The scribble picture series started in 2023, and I continue to explore and constrain the style. Most of them are displayed on my main portfolio site:
https://www.crumplab.com/things/#category=Scribble
If you are interested in a print from that site that isn't here yet, let me know.
The basic elements are walking around and taking a picture, usually in the NYC area, and then drawing little bits of things on top.
Some very early prototype scribble pictures looked like this:
At some point I picked up a FUJI XH2 camera, and that inspired walking around taking even more pictures and then fiddling with Adobe Lightroom to bring out colors and contrasts that seemed fun to draw over.
This next one is the first scribble picture that set me off in this direction.
It's a portrait shot of NYC buildings, a reasonable amount of visual interest, things everywhere, people everywhere. A common theme is scribbling over people's heads, hands, signs, and words. The picture itself is blown out in terms of colors and contrast, which helps stage the lower proportion of drawn elements.
Over time I've settled on a slightly less blown out look for the photograph, usually something sunny, light, high-ish contrast, with potential for color. Then I'll get in there and scribble over top. Usually going for a visual vibe that suits the photo, and may or may not add little characters arounds. Garbage cans typically turn into R2D2-like robot creatures.
There's very often cartoon clouds, and sometimes horns and things with baguette-looking arms or fins sticking out of them. Maybe helmets with reflective screens. Sometimes squiggles that fit the draping contours of clothing. Or leaves on a tree. Very often there are references to characters and features from other series (see portfolio, like superland).
In terms of the process, I'm taking shots on a FujiFilm XH2 that allows printing these things fairly large at very high resolution. The native resolution is 18x27 at 300dpi, which looks fabulous (IMO), especially on matte art paper. I tweak the color and contrast of the photos in lightroom, then import them into Adobe Fresco, a drawing program for iPad. Then a bunch of drawing happens in layers. Typically I'll start with a pen and ink approach and cartoonize parts of the photograph, then it's time to fill in the spaces with color...usually chosen from one of the photographs pixel that was inside a drawn area. Lots of other tweaks. And, finally some kind of scribble picture that I label with the next highest number.