# A snail in the desert (progress)



## JohanMalm

I thought I would share how I work with you. I think this might be the most suiting part of the forum to post it. I got the idea from someone on instagram doing a sculpture of a snail with a skull instead of a shell. I got some old pictures saved on my computer of some abandoned car in the desert. I cut and pasted them together in photoshop for a referens picture. So this is where I start. 










Now the transformation begins. I started to draw the snail with the skull shell. 
Some mistakes but I'll fix that later.


----------



## DLeeG

Nice start. I'm interested in watching.


----------



## JohanMalm

So now I scanned the snail and done some coloring and shading. 13 layers to be exact. Next I'll do some of the cars in the background.


----------



## JohanMalm

Caravan is done and some of the lines for the road, I also draw some lines that will become mountains in the background. I'll have to redraw them analog later as the lines I draw in the computer doesn't look as good as the ones drawn on paper. I use a cheap tablet with a pen when I work in the computer. 

Here's the before I scan.









And here's when I added it to the picture. Some cut and paste are done to get the sidelines of the road in place and in correct angle.


----------



## DLeeG

The young generation and their tools. When I was a kid we had to walk through the desert with our burnt stick looking for snails to draw on flat rocks.


----------



## JohanMalm

And look how you turned out


----------



## JohanMalm

So now the skyline and the color of some of it are done. When you color something with the paintbucket. You get a nice and smooth color without any shades or shifting. Which is nice when you do a clean pic or a simple illustration, but if you wanna do something to look a little more realistic, you have to do all the structure yourself. So that's what I'm gonna do now. I'm gonna draw rocks in the asphalt and grass and stuff in the sand.
I'm not sure about the sky and the clouds. We'll see about that later.


----------



## DLeeG

It's looking great. I like your clouds. It's not a place to use paint bucket. Good job on the vanishing point. The snail and skull are well drawn. Thumbs up from me.


----------



## JohanMalm

Thanks. It's multiple layers of transparent white on a light blue background. 

So I been working on the structure of the asphalt. 
Here's the stones drawn in pen on paper. Yes it's the same paper I drew the snail on. 









Then I fitted it in the main picture. Colored it and made it transparent with a few exceptions. 
I also added shadow from the snail. 









I really don't know where to go from here. I'll try some things and figure it out. Be right back.


----------



## JohanMalm

One funny thing with working in photoshop is that a few clicks and you can try different things. This happened and I kind of liked it. Even if it gives a complete different tone to the picture.


----------



## JohanMalm

So I think I'm done. 45 layers all in all. If you got anything you think I should do with it, please tell me. If you wanna see more how I do work in photoshop? Tell me and I might do a video of it.


----------



## JohanMalm

Here's one, but it's in swedish... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12cCGRM67C4&list=UUpa-DvshQzzU8as-vTS5XJw


----------

