Mondays with PHN: A Introspective on Slaying
| 26 July 2010
Allo', all the allied allosauruses out there! PHN here, with a special Monday post, looking back at the Lina Inverse Dragon Slave artwork. Today I'm going to detail the process of it, so sit back, and let's take a look at how these shenanigans shook things up in the shephards glen!
Thumbnailing
This isn't the first thumbnail, just the one I went with. Just scratching it out in Photoshop, I'm looking to see what elements of the work I wanted, along with the position of shapes. This thumbnail was a combination of two other ones, the angle from one rejected idea, and the moon positioning from another. Putting them together, I got a compromise that worked out for everyone!
Initial sketching
This is me blocking-in all the elements of the work on the actual artboard. Here I'm making sure everything fits correctly, and some quick decision making needs to get made, because some things that work on the thumbnail don't work when it's blown up, such as the width and spread of the cape. I bring it in tighter so that more of the background can be seen.
Finished penciling
Well, that's kind of a misnomer, because the penciling isn't "quite" finished, but it's pretty much done, as far as decision making goes. Next up, it's time to tighten up the lines and add the final touches...
The inks
Add in those phat blacks and put on the ol' John Hancock. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not an inker, so mine look sort of amateurish, but that's all good. Everyone has things they need to work on. This is just one of my many.
Base Coloring
I think it's pretty well known, but for those not in the know, I like to work from dark to light. Thus, in my initial color seperations, I like to put in the darkest colors first. It helps with the depth and color harmony. So now, it's time to start cutting in the...
Highlights
If the potatoes of the meal is in the base coloring, the meat is in the highlights. It's here you establish form, color, and pretty much everything that's important. This is the main dish, and you've got to do this part right. Because the next step, while being fun, is just the window-dressing. The desert, if you will. And that step of course being...
Special Effects
Special Effects is something I love doing. It's me, playing with Photoshop, to come up with all sorts of neat tricks. And that's what me doing special effects really is: playing. It's like having all these fun toys at your disposal and you're putting them together or making them do things that might be intended, or heck, you might just have a fun accident. It's what makes every piece unique and different, the journey towards getting the effects you want together. And once it all comes together, you've come around to...
The end!
And that wraps up another piece in the wide, wacky world of PHN! I hope this has shown that every artist has a process, and some (better) artists have their ideas laid out long before they even pick up a pencil. And some other (read: coooooool) artists have no idea where their work will take them. I am the latter. I go in with a general idea, and then I just let the balls fall where they may. Impractical/pedestrian? Maybe. But it's definitely a lot more fun that way! So bring it back next time, for when we bring in the wacky fun slide! This is PHN, signing off!