The process usually begins where every good design does: with a pencil and paper. A pencil lets me think quickly and intuitively, and I don’t have to worry about mistakes or getting the idea too refined.
I’ll do a bunch of quick sketches for each illustration, and after I’ve picked a few that convey the idea with a compelling style, I’ll scan the sketches and bring them into Adobe Photoshop.
I use photoshop to quickly and non-destructively color my illustrations. I use a Wacom Tablet with a pressure sensitive stylus and an infinite number of digital brushes for my coloring work.
Once I have a concept sketch fully colored, I create a full-scale pencil illustration. I then ink the pencil lines in with a nib pen and brushes, using sumi ink at various dilutions.
I scan the inked in illustration and once again bring it into Photoshop to edit and color it. At this point I have a very flexible medium, I can even change the original pen illustration with photoshop.