The idea behind this illustration is Hell on Earth, with the patriarch of the family, "Gramps," being the ruler of hell.

The story is set in 2185 A.D., 102 years after the invention of a medicine called anti-gerasone.  This wonder drug halts the aging process and prevents people from dying of old age as long as they keep taking it. Anti-gerasone is cheap and plentiful, made from mud and dandelions. As a result, the world now suffers from severe overpopulation and shortages of food and resources. With the exception of the wealthy, most of the population survives on a diet of food made from processed seaweed and sawdust.

The Schwartz family, headed by 172-year-old Harold ("Gramps"), inhabits a three-room apartment in New York City.  The city has grown so large due to overpopulation that it now spills into the state of Connecticut. Gramps' grandson Louis, his wife Emerald, and 20 other descendants are crowded into the space, perpetually jockeying for Gramps' favor. Gramps gets the best food and the only private bedroom. He controls everyone's life by constantly revising his will to disinherit anyone who earns his displeasure.

This illustration is part of a larger series I have been working on from Kurt Vonnegut's book of short stories "Welcome to the Monkey House". The following is the process I usually follow when developing a new illustration:

After reading the story, I start with creating a word association list. This helps me think of the possibilities. I sometimes make connections at this point that I may not have if I had just jumped into the thumbnail process.

After this, I jump into the hard part, sketching out ideas...trying to figure out what's working and what isn't. Even though this is the "anything goes" part of the project, (when you open yourself to the possibilities) it's usually the most stressful for me. What if I can't come up with a good idea? It drives me crazy! But it's also very rewarding when you know you have something good.

I thought my first four ideas were interesting, but they just didn't feel right. After some more contemplation, I came up with the idea of Gramps as the ruler of Hell.

Once a direction has been chosen, I begin collecting and photographing reference material. I don't always have access to the perfect model, so I often pose for pictures myself, or ask a friend. I also search for pictures of people I think would make good characters. I use gesture and lighting from my personal photos, but with facial characteristics, hair, clothing, etc., influenced by other sources.

Below is my first fleshed out sketch. I felt like I was getting somewhere at this point, but I knew it wasn't quite there yet. That's when I to turn to others that I trust for their input. Usually someone else can see right away what's working and what's not.

After the first round of feedback, I realized that Gramps wasn't looking as mean as he should. Someone pointed out that everything in the image flowed to the right, and that the figure on the bottom was hard to read.

After getting some more feedback, I removed some of the figures in the background, and added a new figure to the bottom left. I rendered out the illustration in gray scale.

I usually start adding color by first applying a gradient map layer. It's a great way to set the over all tone of the image.

 After that, I use some adjustment layers to play with the color tones. I then add layers set to color or multiply to paint in specific colors, and create a more complex color scheme.