WWDDD process

Mad Men is one of my favorite shows on tv right now. Over the coarse of the past few months my Wife and I have been watching Mad Men on Netflix like crazy so I figured it was time I did my own Don Draper tribute picture. Here's a simple step by step process that I took to create this picture.

1.Line art: using an assortment of photo references I started out with some simple line art. I typically use a 2H pencil and knowing I am going to paint it to some degree I used watercolor cold press paper. I typically don't spend a lot of time on the pencil sketch (around 30 minutes) before I go straight into inking. For inking I tend to use 01, 05, 08 and 1 Copic fine point pens depending on the detail. At this point I am about an hour in.

2.Ink Wash: I live for ink wash. I know some people don't care for it but I really love working with it. From one simple bottle of black ink I can make a dozen different shades of gray. I love how flexible the medium is and how fast I can work with it. I have many different paint brushes in all shapes and sizes but my absolute favorite is a 1/4 dagger shaped brush. I tend to use that brush 99% of the time. At this point in the process I have decided that I am going to dabble in a little ink wash and a little digital work to finish the picture after another hour into the process (2 hours total).

3.Digital inks: I'll be the first to admit that digital drawing of any sort is not my strong suit, but one thing that I can do is "fill color" like nobodies business. So I felt digitally coloring Don's suit and tie black would look much better than wasting a bunch of sumi ink. In addition to coloring his suit black I also then made the background transparent. I spent the most time cleaning up any tiny blemishes so the transparency would look the best when I figured out what background I would layer behind his head. Estimated time spent another hour.

4. Digital Unused Background: My first idea (previously unpublished) for the background was to use the Manhatten skyline in the back layer, but I still felt something was missing.

5.Final Version. Don Draper is notorious for many things. Drinking, smoking and getting busy with the ladies for starters. For how fun all those things may be I didn't want to necessary make a picture promoting those things. I just wanted to celebrate the character. I found some stock smoke online and altered it enough to fit my idea. So even though I don't show Don smoking there's still that element of smoke around him. Finally I put the "Mad Men" logo in the corner just in case people need a clue as to whom I was portraying. Total estimated time spent 6 hours.

The title "WWDDD?" to me stands for "What Would Don Draper Do?" while I've had some friends tell me it should be stand for "What Wouldn't Don Draper Do?"...either way you want to read it is fine by me because I like them both.

I've never really taken the time to show my entire step by step process before. I hope enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed making it.

NO!