Hello!
I hope that everyone is doing alright, I'm trying to get back on track with my drawing routine. Now I've got nowhere to run since I am stuck at home.
anyway,
here's my first illustration in 2020.
I spent on this piece 5 days in total, sometimes I was lazy, sometimes I was motivated.
I started by throwing ideas back and forth and finally I developed a sketch with decent lineart and some shadows on separate layers.
I didn't know what to do with the background but I kept working on this. I threw some gradient maps on top of flat gray with AO.
Following day I spent on figuring out some background and a skeleton's skull. I painted it on top of all the layers.
Final day I spent finalising this piece. I had to figure out how to paint a fire and once I finished this illustration I've realised that it was overdone.
I thought I would postpone repainting this fire and this sword but I was just too hyped to finish it . So i fixed it ( i think)
I changed a colour of this sword and it now looks more pleasant to the eye and less heavy with all the amounts of orange. I also worked a little more on reflected light. It might not be perfect but personaly I feel that it was a huge step for me to finish a piece like this.
Learnt and understood the following things:
- why I need somewhat clean lineart (so it is easier to plan the hierarchy of layers and easier and quicker start with applying basic shading and also it helps to determine main elements of the design)
- Using gradient maps and AO is very handy and quick (you just need to get the hang of creating cool gradients)
- How to paint fire
- Proper shadows are always 50% off from your main colour, this way you can build nice shading
- Not to be afraid of grey
I wish that I could picture the final result beforehand so I actually have a chance to structure my layers better but hey, I feel like I've learnt a lot.
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