An art process post
I've mostly relegated the art stuff to my Tumblr. But as I'm still not entirely sure how Tumblr works with uploading multiple pictures, I'm bringing the process post over here!
I love process posts. I love peeling away the layers of method and watching how someone works. This post is my own process and is an accurate sample for most of the pieces I do. If you're interested, click on through.
An old college pal contacted me and requested a picture of Hal Jordan vs. the Spectre. It's cool because he's gotten into glassblowing as a hobby and offered a craft exchange for the picture. So I've got some glass Christmas ornaments to look forward to.
Lately I've been sketching directly into the computer, rather than scanning a paper sketch. I think there are merits to both, but lately I'm happy with the speed and easy corrections of digital sketching. I think there's some charm lost when you don't use a paper sketch, but hopefully the difference is slight enough to go undetected.
Digital sketch.
So, Hal Jordan vs. the Spectre. Hal Jordan who, while dead for a time, was inhabited by the Spectre, so they have some history. The Spectre is currently occupying deceased Gotham City detective Crispus Allen.
I like both of them, so I had an idea pretty much right away, which is nice.
First lines.
I actually don't have binocular vision, so sometimes I get sucked into details and gloss over the actual proportion or proper placement of things. Like when I inked it I realigned some of the Spectre's facial features. The easiest way to catch stuff like this is to change the perspective, so I'll flip it. On paper I'd have to turn it over and hold it up to the light, but on the computer it's a lot simpler. I flip horizontally back and forth through several steps just to keep my eyes fresh.
My tools are Photoshop 6.0 and a little Wacom pen tablet, which I love.
Rough gray tones.
Above is a new step in the process. I've been trying to be more conscious of composition, light and shadow. So I'll airbrush in some tones and step back to see if it works. Maybe I'll get more intricate down the road but right now it's a quick sketchy thing. I made the mistake of not doing this with a Nightwing piece a while back and the whole thing came out too dark.
Even looking at this now, I think I should have moved the Spectre's foreground hand so it didn't seam into Hal's leg.
Lines with shadows.
Once I know where the darkest shadows are, I add some more ink. I have to force myself to do this, as I never formed a habit for putting shadows in the ink stage.
Next comes my absolute favorite step:
Base colors!
This is really when a picture starts to come together for me. And playing in colors after all those lines and white space is so much stinkin' fun. I throw on a temporary background so any accidental blank spots will be sure to stand out. Then I choose my paints. Since I've done Green Lantern before, I open an old picture and use those color swatches. Spectre is new to me, so I played around until I got what you see there.
Shadows and highlights.
Next I swap out my temporary background and proceed to add shades and highlights (and Cris's beard). Every once in a blue moon I'll use simple black and white layers for shadow and light and futz with the opacity levels, but this is my preferred method. I use pure colors, sampled and adjusted from the base colors, on additional layers. I usually do two layers of shadow, one layer of highlights.
I've also added Hal's lantern badge and his force-field.
Now I go in and clean up and add some details, including some finer features on the Spectre's face and the light from Hal's ring. Finally, I use the smudge tool to soften and blend.
Voila.
I love process posts. I love peeling away the layers of method and watching how someone works. This post is my own process and is an accurate sample for most of the pieces I do. If you're interested, click on through.
An old college pal contacted me and requested a picture of Hal Jordan vs. the Spectre. It's cool because he's gotten into glassblowing as a hobby and offered a craft exchange for the picture. So I've got some glass Christmas ornaments to look forward to.
Lately I've been sketching directly into the computer, rather than scanning a paper sketch. I think there are merits to both, but lately I'm happy with the speed and easy corrections of digital sketching. I think there's some charm lost when you don't use a paper sketch, but hopefully the difference is slight enough to go undetected.
Digital sketch.
So, Hal Jordan vs. the Spectre. Hal Jordan who, while dead for a time, was inhabited by the Spectre, so they have some history. The Spectre is currently occupying deceased Gotham City detective Crispus Allen.
I like both of them, so I had an idea pretty much right away, which is nice.
First lines.
I actually don't have binocular vision, so sometimes I get sucked into details and gloss over the actual proportion or proper placement of things. Like when I inked it I realigned some of the Spectre's facial features. The easiest way to catch stuff like this is to change the perspective, so I'll flip it. On paper I'd have to turn it over and hold it up to the light, but on the computer it's a lot simpler. I flip horizontally back and forth through several steps just to keep my eyes fresh.
My tools are Photoshop 6.0 and a little Wacom pen tablet, which I love.
Rough gray tones.
Above is a new step in the process. I've been trying to be more conscious of composition, light and shadow. So I'll airbrush in some tones and step back to see if it works. Maybe I'll get more intricate down the road but right now it's a quick sketchy thing. I made the mistake of not doing this with a Nightwing piece a while back and the whole thing came out too dark.
Even looking at this now, I think I should have moved the Spectre's foreground hand so it didn't seam into Hal's leg.
Lines with shadows.
Once I know where the darkest shadows are, I add some more ink. I have to force myself to do this, as I never formed a habit for putting shadows in the ink stage.
Next comes my absolute favorite step:
Base colors!
This is really when a picture starts to come together for me. And playing in colors after all those lines and white space is so much stinkin' fun. I throw on a temporary background so any accidental blank spots will be sure to stand out. Then I choose my paints. Since I've done Green Lantern before, I open an old picture and use those color swatches. Spectre is new to me, so I played around until I got what you see there.
Shadows and highlights.
Next I swap out my temporary background and proceed to add shades and highlights (and Cris's beard). Every once in a blue moon I'll use simple black and white layers for shadow and light and futz with the opacity levels, but this is my preferred method. I use pure colors, sampled and adjusted from the base colors, on additional layers. I usually do two layers of shadow, one layer of highlights.
I've also added Hal's lantern badge and his force-field.
Now I go in and clean up and add some details, including some finer features on the Spectre's face and the light from Hal's ring. Finally, I use the smudge tool to soften and blend.
Voila.