Alexander and Bucephalus

I contribute occasionally to a site called Storywarren.  Starting this week, every Friday will feature a story, or poem, or song for kids.  Some will be new, but some will be old.  This Friday’s post is an old story about a young Alexander the Great and his horse Bucephalus.  I did the illustration below in photoshop.

The great thing about photoshop is that you can thumbnail by zooming out.  I roughed-in the necessary elements until I found something sort of satisfactory.

The eye scans the picture better if the composition is flipped.  So I flipped the sketch and roughed in the values.

Next, I tightened the drawing up a bit.  I wanted it to be a little loose but not unreadable.

Lastly, I tweaked a few things and added a subtle color gradient for interest.

And there you have it: Alexander and Bucephalus, or as the kids in the neighborhood used to call them, Al and Butch.