Racing Rivals-Cars 2

Sometime last fall, I was asked to illustrate a book for Cars 2 for Disney Publishing, called "Racing Rivals." It was a great opportunity and a huge learning experience. Now that the movie is out, I am free to share some of the artwork. I thought it might be interesting to show some of the process that went into getting the book done. Below is a step by step example of the first 2 page spread.

After being given the text that would go on each page, I started to layout each page to figure out a good composition.

After working with the art directors at Disney and Pixar, I began to refine the layout. The decision was made to go to a two page spread, so the layout needed to change accordingly. I was also thinking a little bit more about the size relationships of the characters and the background. Because this scene is in the movie, I was given in progress reference of what this scene was going to look like. Also, this whole book was made digitally in photoshop. Even the sketching at this early stage was digital-no pencils! Working with so many art directors on a project that was constantly changing (the movie was still being worked on), working digitally made making changes a lot easier.

After a few minor revisions based on feedback from Disney and Pixar, the layout was locked in. At this point, I began to work on a tight line drawing. When I work, I prefer to plan everything out so that when I paint all of the problems are already solved. Painting is hard enough as it is, and it would be a lot harder if you also had to figure out the underlying drawing.

Part of the process of this book was figuring out the styling of the characters themselves. As you can see these are sort of my versions of the characters...they don't look exactly like they look in the movie. I landed on this style after going back and forth with my art directors on what would be appropriate for the target audience of this book.

And finally, the finished page. As I said before, I painted this book digitally. I was given reference images of this scene from Pixar, and after I saw the movie I was really happy with how close they seemed to match.

Here is the page with the text laid in.

Next time you're at the theaters, check out Cars 2, and buy the book!