ART WAR 4 | 2D | War of the Elements | Nariko - The thunder child | pylua

pylua 2020-01-19 04:41:24 UTC #1

Hi !I'm late to the party but I'm still here !
I'll take part in this Art War under the lightning banners !

Name: Stéphane Pauly

Arstation: https://www.artstation.com/pylua
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.pylua/

Final Illustration :

pylua 2020-01-19 04:56:23 UTC #2

I'm not used to show and describe all my processes but I will do my best.

So for this ArtWar let me introduce you to Nariko (which means Thunder Child).
I went for a female fighter, since I don't draw a lot of women I thought it would be some kind of training at the same time.

So for the first step, here are some early sketches I started on paper and scanned to keep working on it with my tablet.

I'd like to keep Nariko's design pretty simple. Here I try visualise what can do with just these 3 words : Woman - fighter - lightning

pylua 2020-01-19 05:16:20 UTC #3

For the next step I did some tests, painting several hairstyles and face caracteristics.
As you can read, the marks around the eyes will be the same color as the lightnings of Nariko, but at this point I haven't made my mind yet about the lightnings so I tried several colors.

(And as you can clearly see by the look of her neck and shoulders, my habits of drawing mostly male figures are not going away any time soon . But I think it will look good on a fighter !)

(By the way sorry about the possible english mistakes, I'm a french frog)

pylua 2020-01-19 18:41:15 UTC #4

Little update :
Here's a more global look at her and some outfits.
(I decided to go with haircut #1 btw, but i'm still working on the marks and lightnings colors)

clarief 2020-01-19 20:33:20 UTC #5

This is all looking really cool so far! I love the beginning sketches too, I can feel the power in her moments :D.

As for the facial marks around the eyes, I am leaning towards both the lighting color (2) and the pink one (5) However the red marks (1) doesn't look too bad either!

pylua 2020-01-23 00:18:06 UTC #6

Hi again !
Thank you for the reply and for you point of view @clarief

I've been working on the colors of the lightnings recently, here's the result.
I think that the combination of the facial marks #1 and yellow lightnings works the best if I want to keep it simple.

So next step will be finishing the details of the outfit. I started thinking about some composition ideas, I'll have to sketch them too.

clarief 2020-01-23 17:59:09 UTC #7

I love all the colors lol! I can’t decide XD

pylua 2020-01-23 19:49:51 UTC #8

Yeah that was my problem too, but I had to make a choice (even if it still can be changed as things progress)

pylua 2020-01-25 03:41:42 UTC #9

Little update. I decided to take a small break from the whole charadesign of Nariko to put on "paper" some compositions I had in mind for the final illustration.

pylua 2020-01-25 03:54:08 UTC #10

Initially, composition #3 was the one that came to me as soon as I started working on the contest. I think the low-angle perspective shows the power and stature of the character.

I still love it but I know that I'll have some problems working in this perspective... Especially with the face

In the meantime, #4 started to really grow on me.

Sooooo... I'm a bit lost. What's your opinion about it ?

clarief 2020-01-25 20:58:48 UTC #11

I am doing the same thing now since we only have a short time left and probably need to figure out how to display the character's abilities and strengths.

I like #4 because I think it kind of shows how strong she is like "Look at all the people she defeated with a few punches" or something like that. Like she has finished her mission but still needs to continue to the next level. At least that is what the composition tells me.

pylua 2020-01-26 05:22:58 UTC #12

I still have a bit of lore I'd like to explore but yeah, that's kinda my problem : I take a lot of time to polish everything even these concept arts that are supposed to be kind of basic.

Yeah #4 kinda won in my mind. The more I think about these compositions, the more I realise that I'm just thinking about #4

pylua 2020-01-26 05:43:23 UTC #13

Another update before I work on that final illustration (even if, as I said above, I'd like to draw and write a bit of lore).

So I worked a bit on the outfit of Nariko. (First time in color, Yay!).

As you can see I was inspired by the japanese thunder divinity : Raijin (as Narijo is the thunder child ).
But it wasn't really supposed to be SO inspired in fact. At first I just wanted to represent his sash/scarf around his shoulders as an electric arc going around Nariko's shoulders as she prepares to fight.

But as I was looking for some references of him to remember how it actually looked I found out that the color palette I used for Nariko was almost the same as Raijin's

I intended to try a bit more colors combination but I think this is fate

vasge_ 2020-01-26 13:26:15 UTC #14

You’ve got a pretty cool design as for the composition, I think that the low angle on 3 is great, but I also like how dynamic 4 came out. Have you thought of what setting you’ll draw your character in? I’ll be looking forward to see how this one develops!

pylua 2020-01-26 19:08:45 UTC #15

Mmmh, I was thinking (based on composition #4) maybe Nariko in a (her ?) dojo. Being attacked, and stepping outside to teach a lesson to those water, earth and fire champions who dared disturb her meditation and training .

pylua 2020-01-27 22:19:24 UTC #16

Little update, I've finally started to work on the final illustration.
I didn't have too much time today so that's just where I am for now. I also started to write a little bit of the lore. I'll post it as soon as I finish it !

pylua 2020-01-28 23:51:05 UTC #17

Decided to change the light and the shadows because the way it was placed would have mean that she'd be facing the wall while the entrance as well as the ennemies would have been (too far) on her right...

dreamsequenz 2020-01-29 14:33:00 UTC #18

I like the poses remind me of Azula from Avatar

danrob 2020-01-29 14:49:38 UTC #19

Nice lighting! I also really like the effect you have with the lightning. I think you should do some really cool composition stuff using that lightning in the background if you aren't already set on your current layout. Its basically a free pass to make any shape you want back there

pylua 2020-01-30 02:29:54 UTC #20

@dreamsequenz Dude. Avatar was sooo good (I miss it).
I see the resemblance to Azula (I hated her, but kinda liked her. That's a strange feeling ) !

@danrob Thank you ! I see what you mean, I'm not that used to make illustrations with that much perspectives and composition-thinking but at least it's a training for me.
I'd like to keep the overall shape of the lightning right because there are elements I want to try adding. But I try to keep my layers organized in case I ever want to change anything at any time .