My pattern art is a painful one. Simple in form -- Draw, but complex in execution -- Draw a lot; the art is time consuming at best and suicide inducing at worst. It involves extreme detail which takes place over months of work. All that aside, here is my (for self-reference) workflow:
Find a photo of subject (billy mays)
go to photoshop, black and white it, and cutout filter it.
(note, i dont actually use the cutout filter, but this effect is desired.)
print the simplified work, as if to carve a jack-o-lantern
Trace the outlines in pencil on the canvas at size.
draw, going from most detailed to least detailed areas.
It's that simple!
