So you want to sketch a hero?

Back in February, I posted about a technique I called “sketch-to-vector” where I use Photoshop to freehand draw illustrations then copy them into Illustrator and convert the lines to vector. The poster I ran through in the outlined process was actually the second time I had used the technique, the first being a series of new fox character sketches for SUMO’s new “help other users” section of their website.

Meet grownup Kit

The thoughts around the character were to show Kit (don’t hurt the web/Test pilot) as an older fox, now with an superhero alter ego for saving the Web. His style turned out to be an evolution of some of the sketching I had done when designing our new mascot.

Five poses were created for the different pages in SUMO’s get involved section – introduction, army of awesome, knowledge base, forums, localization. It wasn’t the easiest task to come up with visual metaphors for the sections, but after some quick jamming with the team I was able to start in on the artwork.

I really love sketching on the Cintiq and the quality of line that comes from the pencil tools I have in Photoshop. I’m quite happy with the raw drawings so I decided to release a few as some fun wallpapers. Hope you like them. Enjoy!