caption: "It'll never work, Harry. You think the best things in life are free, and I charge by the hour."
Approved loose-style gag rough - "OK color page H" in black pen. 8 1/2 x 11 on 24 lb. paper using aniline dyes.
Most of Doug's loose-style gag roughs (8 1/2 x 11) sent to cartoon meetings for Hef's selection and approval were done in pencil and black Sharpie permanent marker, but if there was time, he'd do some in color - first the flesh tones, then the other colors, one-by-one. This added step made it easier for Hef to quickly visualize the essence of the gag during a meeting that involved hundreds of gag roughs from several different artists.
Although the initial preliminary pencil rough - image area 6 3/4 x 8 1/4 on heavy tracing vellum - generally followed the blocking of characters and the setting drawn in the approved gag rough, Doug changed the girl's arm position, added more cars in traffic and implied, by adding a planter, that the two were talking on a downtown sidewalk.
In a follow-up pencil rough, however, Doug reworked both the guy's and girl's clothing, her arm position and the background setting - a carriage ride in the park implies romance and sophistication.
(Was the carriage driver's cap instead of a top hat what made Doug change the background setting again???)
image area 7 x 9 1/4 on heavy tracing vellum
Doug was obviously satisfied with the position of the girl's arm but wanted to consider a different dress style - image area 5 10 1/2 on heavy tracing vellum
Doug's known for his attention to details so it's not surprising that he worked up another pencil rough - image area 7 x 9 1/2 on light tracing vellum - with different clothing for the girl, blouse with a 3/4-sleeve, and background setting, popular sidewalk cafe. He also decided to move the Sneyd signature to the lower left corner.
The biggest change to the final pencil rough - image area 6 3/4 x 9 on heavy tracing vellum - was to the background setting. Doug decided that in an earlier pencil rough it was too crowded so he cut the crowd down to 2 patrons, including a girl drinking a martini. He also moved the cafe awning up higher but was still undecided about the placement of the moon.
Doug typically xeroxes the final pencil rough and then applies aniline dyes for the color rough.
Instead, he did a hand-drawn rough on Arches of France cold press art board (image area 6 1/2 x 8 1/2) and left space at the top to further "test" color selections before going to final art.
Still not satisfied, he did a second hand-drawn color rough on Arches of France cold press art board (image area 7 x 9 3/4) and made a few minor tweaks - the seated girl's glass, the awning, etc.
To see more available approved gag roughs and
Playboy preliminary pencil and color roughs, visit the Doug Sneyd Premium Gallery at:
(blog entries by Heidi Hutson
