(The original brief). The world of entertainment is a vast one. Everything from dare devils to magicians, there is an almost endless stream of entertainers. But for the most part, these are all simple or just a trick or illusion. There is one entertainer who uses the art of a beautiful, seductive dance mixed with the use of deadly blades. This dance of the blades has a symbolic of beauty and danger. The blades range from all kinds of different sizes and styles. Swords, daggers, axes, you name it. But each blade represents a theme of the dance.
I think I’m calling it a day on this one now. I’ve worked on it very long, and really done what I could. I guess this is my own bench mark for now. I personally think that the end result is quite crappy, but I learned very much doing it, so it still feels like it was a nice ride. I scrapped quite much from the latest image and redid the coloring and rendering of her dress. First I applied a gradient, then I blocked in the second layers of color, then the third, and always working with masks so that I stay in place and won’t have to worry about drawing outside of the forms. I raised the contrast of the colors since I’ve noticed I need to be a bit more bold with contrast, and then just did what I could for the final rendering. Tried to have a look at Zoonoid‘s art to see what fully rendered characters look like, heh (despite just looking at his stuff makes you wanna give up on art, haha).
What I’ve learned from doing this piece is mainly the following:
- Explore the design with quick and dirty sketches.
- Mix and match the designs you like the best. Form follows fucking function. Have a purpose with the design.
- Make a nice line drawing. This will serve as a foundation, needs to be done carefully. NO CHEATING.
- Block in the colors. Think about complimentary and contrast colors. Use gradient for some areas, it helps to bring them to life.
- Make sure things are divided into proper layers. Don’t draw everything on one or two layers.
- Work with masks and use big brushes.
- Think about the light. Where does it come from? What kind of light fits this character?
- Add the details and sharp edges later on.
- Extra awesome sauce like rim light is added on late in the process.
- Tweak values and choose background. Gray is usually nice as background.
- Feet and hands HOW DO YOU EVEN DRAW THEM?
Yeah, I think that is it. If you got any feedback or comments just hurl them at me, I’m all ears!