slavin away for the wandering king

I've been working on the first piece of Battlerock art all weekend and now it's all finished up. I even saved some screens along the way to explain my process cause that's always fun and ego boosting. Let's get right to it!

Sketch:


Here's the original scan...all...murky lookin. I hate my scanner.

Color Blocking:


I started scrubbing in some skin tones and got carried away with One Horn, so he ended up with pants and boots and the whole kit n kiboodle. I added a yellow to purple gradient in the background to give myself some color reference. I also blew up the canvas by about 5% just to give myself some wiggle room since my original scan was hitting the side of the page.

More colorblocking:


When I got back to it, I finished up putting in the colors for the Snake Giant. This was basically just another batch of scrubbing with opacity gitter on in Photoshop. I also added some ground shadows and light and filled in the fortress in the back.

Texture and light:


Now the fun stuff, effects! I added a lot of texture with a sponge brush on the ground. I also added some different color layers on top to give it depth. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with the gap between them and the tower when I started, but I found this mist detailing to be pleasing so I ran with it. The boys got some treatment as well, with a few layers of color and shading.

More lighting:


More minor shading to get them to pop and add weight. I went darker on the shadow to add more drama.

FINISHED:


So there were a lot of changes at the end. The blue ground color was detracting from the fight and the Serpent Tower needed some serious touching up. I removed the outlines and colored in with shadow, then took it all down a notch so as not to pull focus. Also added in a wicked cloud ring to be all ominous and such. And, of course, I added the all important battle-blood just to spice it up.

That was a great project for me, expect to see more in the coming weeks!

SITE NEWS: The gallery on my site will be functional within a week or so...I've finished it up, I just need to edit a couple of buttons and make sure it's not going to break. The Open Hand art will be up (it's all finished) as well as some old favorites and new to come. Aren't you happy I kept you up to date? I knew you would be.