If there was ever an illustration with my name on it, it was this one I did for the Riverfront Times talking about this upcoming event at the St. Louis History Museum. James Eads + Ulysses S. Grant + Civil War Ironclad battleships = LET'S GO!!!Thumbnail:
Rough Sketch (to scale):
Vector Layout and Palette:
Tighter Color Sketch:
Ink Drawing:
Final Vector Art (the finished illustration with some photoshop voodoo sprinkled on top is at the top of this post):
BONUS BLOG INFORMATION: 
If the synchronicity of this job isnt' staggering enough -- I've drawn an entire comic book about Civil War ironclads, and am working on a print commemorating James Eads -- get a load of this: When I first got the job I was telling my lovely fiancée Jenny about the staggering synchronicity. Meanwhile, Judge Mathis was on the TV set in my studio (important process note: I usually am watching a daytime television judge whilst drawing during the daytime). When they cut to the defendant dude who owed his ex-girlfriend money from an unpaid loan, his name flashed on the screen and it was ... JAMES EADS.
BONUS BLOG INFORMATION II:Don't let the smooth-as-silk process sequence presented in this blog post fool you. I do lots more sketches, starts and stops, etc. For a while I was gonna have Eads and Grant be childhood pals playing with ironclads and a toy version of the Eads bridge in the tub:
6 comments:
I love everything about Civil War Ironclads. The USS Monitor completely changed naval warfare. But the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) weren't the only ironclads in the Civil War. I have even built a Squidoo lens on the USS Cairo, one of the Eads Ironclads. To learn more about the diversity of Ironclad of the American Civil War go to USS Cairo
A work of genius. I am a huge fan of Ironclad. Dan Zettwoch, cartoon master of Illustrated American History. Next, I want a Revolutionary War battle, to go head-to-head with Howard Pyle. Of course your sound effects would be way cooler.
Bathtubs are FUN!
Esp, when they have feet....
Iron Clad is pretty awesome comic!
Awesome illustration, Dan. The kind people would hang on their walls. Framed.
I like seeing all that process stuff too.
Gorgeous piece and that is some crazy synchronicity at work. Love seeing the intense process you go through, Dan.
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