I had the scene framed in my mind so I did a quick sketch. I always start all my drawings like this, trying to roughly place all the characters, objects and important details in a scene so that I avoid the risk of forgetting something. Once this is done, I relax a moment and think where to move next.
I wanted the two main characters in the foreground and at the center of the scene. I chose a manual worker and a highly educated character of different sex because both have the same importance in society. I decided that the background should have as little details as possible to avoid distractions from the two characters. The central part of the scene depicts a road in perspective with the Italian border sign in the middle. The text will go on the upper middle part of the scene, above the post sign. I will not continue penciling and move directly to inking, because the characters will not be particularly detailed.
I blocked in the main details. At this point, I realized that his arm and hand are wrong and will provide to correct them later. My male character has a more menacing pose, showing more anger. I wanted to depict him as a hard worker from the way he keeps his heavy wrench on the shoulder. The State lost a valuable working resource. My female character is highly educated. I tried to depict her angry and proud of her accomplishments, by drawing her in an erect posture and chin up. I think this picture represents well a part of the Italian youth.
Key Steps in Illustration 