Inktober 2024 – “BINOCULARS”

Here we have again our little fellows, now this is something they hadn’t come across with before.

Initially, I wanted to create a mecha-robot with a pair of powerful binoculars being operated by an unlikely or comical character—perhaps an animal or insect. However, after trying to select the right insect, I found that the idea didn’t really excite me. That’s when I remembered some tiny gnomes I had created for a previous illustration, and I felt it was the perfect time to bring them back. But at this point, the binoculars-robot concept felt out of place.

So, I began looking at actual photos of binoculars and thought it would be interesting to depict them abandoned and decaying in the wild. As I moved into the second phase—the working sketch—I decided to add more details to the scene. I imagined the gnomes had trimmed the weeds in front of one lens so they could actually use the binoculars, and to emphasize this, I drew the other lens cracked, with weeds growing freely in front of it. I also added a small pair of scissors, the tool they used for trimming, as a little reward for those who appreciate the finer details.

This illustration followed the three-phase method. Here’s the exploration thumbnail sketch:

Since it worked for me and my purpose, I scaled it up and worked on the details:

Having it this way, I scaled it up again into the pencil sketch, before inking: