The Bravery of Joe Ice – A short story

Here’s my final illustration for my original short story, “The Bravery of Joe Ice.” This illustration had more explorations and work sketches than I expected, but sometimes, it is important to iterate to find the right tone for the scene.

Find below all the iterations I made before reaching the final composition for this tale:

First basic and cartoonish exploration sketch:

On my second attempt, I tried to exaggerated almost all the elements of it, with high hills and stylized props:

I tried to tone it down in the work sketch, with a few adjustments too, but then realized it looked way too different from what I envisioned writing the story.

Finally, I started to make a more sincere composition to my vision and to what I’d written.

While I was already reaching the original vision, the hills were still bothering me, since I felt they were not integrating correctly with the tone of the main graveyard part. So, that is how I got to the final composition:

Finally, the scene was on point, so in the final line art, I just adjusted some perspective elements, and reached the final inks: