P.C.S. Hobo Day Illustration

Here is a drawing I did to advertise the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society's upcoming "Hobo Day" event in June.

The original drawing was done in my sketchbook in pen and ink. I scanned it and re-worked it in Photoshop, changing the ink lines to a dark brown to give it a more rustic, old-timey feel. I also had to do a live trace on the sign logos in Illustrator before placing them into the Photoshop document. The hand-drawn logos in the original drawing were just too shaky.

The digital color palette was inspired by a book I was thumbing through called "The Designer's Guide to Global Color Combinations" by Leslie Cabarga. The book is really interesting, because it talks about how different color combinations evoke a different aesthetic response depending on the region or country. It breaks down by chapter what parts of the world use these color combinations in advertising and art. It even gives a bit of history on why these colors work well in different parts of the world. The book also gives the RGB and CMYK number values you can use to get these exact colors when using programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

I didn't delve much into the meaning behind the color palette I chose. I just picked colors that seemed to fit my drawing. Still in all, the book is really cool and full of a lot of interesting information. Plus the writer has a great sense of humor.