10,000 lb Patient in the Room

I needed to create a huge-feeling elephant, but one who while in a crowded waiting room in a hospital, was still in the mindset he was very small in comparison to the other patients (and as always, the kid on the right is the only one noticing).

This was for Avenue Magazine about their ailing health care crisis, or the 10,000 lb Patient in the Room.  I started with a cepia pencil line quality, then did a wet background layer in Painter:

I was able to wipe out, with a white watercolor brush, the inside of the pencil lines (again why Painter is so awesome), then I threw some simple color in the characters, etc.

Simple shading, layers of watercolor that I'd dry and upon which I'd add wet layers.

Once finished, I was able to clone and drop in a reflection in the parquet floor.

I then added in a few blur clones to give the impression that the entire bench is teetering from the elephant's weight in the middle.