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Well, it usually takes me about a month or two depending on how often I work on it. I started this one in the middle of May and just finished it the other day, so this one in particluar took a little over two months altogether. I usually try to devote at least one hour every day to working on it, but it's not as simple as just "drawing" something. A big part of the job at least for these types of drawings is that I have to take the edge of an object I already have drawn and try to think of something that could realistically fit there. Let me ellaborate:
The first thing I drew in this picture was the bicycle in the lower right corner. From there, I had to examine its surrounding edges and think of objects whose silhouetes could fit around the shape of the bicycle like a puzzle piece. So after a little bit of thinking, I eventually came up with the Witch mask, the shoe and the Turtle to fill in the next three objects. From there, I now had a new set of edges to work with, so where you see the toy dinosaur toy in the final work, I originally dabbled with putting a magic Genie lamp in that space. In fact, there are many places throughout this drawing where I played with other ideas and shapes, but it merely serves as a testament to how challenging the thought process is of making one of these.
So more often than not, I will be sitting there looking at these edges and trying to think of things to put in the surrounding empty space of whatever I already have on the picture. I try to make it even more challenging for myself when I adhere to strict principles of photorealism and correct porportion in terms of the overall size of the objects I use. The fact that I tend to favor distinct and instantly recognizable things that can't be mistaken for anything else usually makes my options limited. So if I'm painted into a corner with a really awkward edge that I HAVE to fill in, it can take me hours to think of a legitimate and distinct object that works well with the picture. It helps if you are familiar with lots and lots of everyday items and can retain a general idea of what they look like. I even spoof the brand names of certain products so I get a little bit of creative play while I'm at it.
It more or less boils down to concave and convex shapes, but its the actual process of finding what to put in the picture that takes so long. I would venture to say that the actual drawing time of this piece is only a few hours, but the actual conceptualizing of the piece is where about 95% of the time goes. But if I'm persistant with it, and make sure I find the right thing to put in the right place, I feel in the end it will pay off.
And that's pretty much it. Maybe someday I'll try coloring one of these. :P
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