DCBB Art: Without a Map (Process: The Journey 2)
THE PEOPLE | THE PLACES | THE STORIES | THE JOURNEY (Part 1) | *WITHOUT A MAP
Warning: Contains female nudity (from the waist up), some spoilers for the fic and possibly NSFW
Pele ( character portrait)
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The process involved in creating 'Cas and the Ifrit' was very much executing a very clear concept. The process of creating 'Pele' was very different. Though the text provided a very detailed description, my concept of how to portray that in an image was not so clear. The following post outlines how I built on, and changed initial concepts in creating the final image.
Concept: As with the ifrit, the description of Pele was wonderful in text.The main idea is that Pele is a volcano goddess and very powerful and imposing. She was in many ways the very opposite of the ifrit, where the ifrit was flashier, Pele is powerful in a deeper, more rooted sense.
A woman stands on the ledge against the sea of clouds, and she is no ordinary woman. She looks young, younger than Dean, even, but her gaze is old and encompassing. Her long hair flutters around her body and dances in the wind, and her eyes - all iris, no pupil - shimmer as if harboring a hidden fire. .....Who else could wear this crown? Fire dances on the tips of her hair, and magma bubbles under her feet. She controls every inch of this place. This volcano is for her as much as she is for this volcano - an impression of danger, of being larger than life. Dormant, but don’t tempt fate.....A breeze gusts past, and Pele’s hair undulates in the wind, beautiful but out of sync with the world, like seaweed in the water.
As before, the first step was cast the role of Pele.
With teh help of my writers, I picked Kelly Hu. A quick painting of her in Corel Painter 11 provided this:
The hair was bit that defined her for me. I began by drawing strands of hair. The 'seaweed in the water' was such a vivid picture that it was the imagery I went with.
At the same time I drew the basis of the eyes, which too were an important part of her image. Next, I started to tackle the the fire around her hair.
This resulted in a rough glowing effect. The drawback of this was that it looked vaguely liked Medusa. To combat this I began blending the strands together at the roots. After I ahd done this I moved to Photoshop CS4 and layered in some textures of volcanic rock and someother grungey textures (some really awesome textures can be found at lostandtaken.com and valleysinthevinyl.com ). Building on the eyes, I added lens flare effects to both eyes to further the impression of bright, glowing pupils.
While the portrait so far was a okay image, I wanted convey more about Pele, and the face alone did not convey a sense of her imposing figure. As well as this I wanted to get across the idea of volcanoes more. Though I had blended the hair, the portrait was still quite Medusa-y and I definitely wnated to step well away from that. Pele is in some wayes a volcano personified and that sense would not be conveyed with the face and hair alone.
Therefore, I started work on a full body image. At the same time I added something akin to lave flow to her hair.
Having established the general direction I wanted to take this in, I added detail to her body and created a 'skirt' of her hair wrapping around her body. More than a sense of power, I wanted to create an air of majesty, and some this is reflected in the way the her hair flows over her shoulder almost like a regal cloak. I also continued adding the lave flow. I wanted Pele to almost be becoming a volcano, using the 'skirt' of hair was the volcano cone.
In the text there's a mention of Pele flexing her hand to subdue the lava flowing in her veins. I wanted to have some kind of reference to that in the image. The lava flowing down her right arm was the beginnings of that.
I continued to develop the idea of the veins, creating shadows next to the lava. An important part of this process was making sure that the lava didn't look too fake, I layered tones at low opacity from her hair and skin onto different parts of the lava flow to create a look that was more integrated into her body.
The final step was adding the texture I had used on her face to the rest of her body. This was done using the warp tool on CS4 and playing around with what filter would work best. Finally, I adjusted the vibrancy, brightness/contrast, added some warming photo filters to create the final image.
I would love to answer any questions if you have any. :) And of course, go read the very awesome fic that inspired this!
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