Most of my current work is tied up in NDA, so I'd like to share the process on a recent favorite. This started as a fun side project for the Eowyn and the Nazgul
ArtOrder challenge, then turned into an obsession.
initial thumbnail
After five or six thumbnails, I kept coming back to this one. The interaction between the characters was a bit weak, but the larger shapes were starting to work.
grayscale process
The image on the far left was submitted to the Muddy Colors gang for critique, and the consensus was it needed more narrative. So, I extended the canvas, added Theodin, his horse, a dead knight, and Merry in the distance to lock in the triangle composition. The muzzle on the fell beast went through several variations until it looked less like a dragon's maw and more like a beak (to stay true to the text). Also, many thanks to Tyler Jacobson for tips on making the light ricochet off Eowyn, creating a sense of glow.
references
Photo references used along the way: 1) My daughter as Eowyn. Holding a pose is hard enough, so I tend to make props out of cardboard so they're not too heavy. 2) My son as Merry. 3) A dead horse found online (it was too scruffy and skinny to be a king's horse, but a good starting point as I can't draw horses for shit). 4) Some dork with a headband, also found online. 5) Drawing the perspective on the Witch King's mace proved incredibly difficult, so I made a model out of a broom handle, foam core, and tape.
final grayscale
color process
Once the grayscale was done, digging in and painting the image only took about three days. Balancing the warm and cool tones without getting too saturated was the hardest part, Minas Tirith needed to be cooled off several times to get it to read as white and not sandstone. A staircase leading to a door was visible until the very end (it was pointed out to me that a giant staircase leading right into a citadel might not be the best defensive strategy. Um, yeah, dumb idea). I replaced the staircase with a wall, and added a lot more combatants to the background.
In the two and a half weeks it took to complete this project, I listened to only one song on repeat: A Knife in the Dark from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack. If it had gone on much longer, my family probably would have destroyed my stereo.
final color
Terrors of the Silt Sea: Oasis Beast
In just six easy steps, watch your favorite fighter be devoured... OM NOM NOM
Once I've settled on the main color elements, I'll move into some secondary color elements on the warrior... though that I'll leave for next time. Its past my bed time :-D
There's not too many things better than getting a mail from your favorite group of creatives, whether it's editors with a piece of new fiction you have the opportunity to contribute some vision to, being added to a call for artists on a new deck or manual, by someone new that you've just met, or an art director you've worked with for years throwing you a project they trust you with, or simply filling in for someone who's flaked.. Perhaps even regardless of payment, the opportunity to shape folks gaming experience, or unconsciously add to a writers narrative? It always curls the biggest smile on me jib.. Absolutely Magical.! Like unwrapping a present on Holiday, or lifting the first print from the block.. These mails remain Beginners mind for me, the latest one just as exciting and uplifting as the very first.. I checked email just around a year ago to find the rare opportunity to do two illos for Jon Shindehette and Dragon Magazine, and the same old sensation hit me. One of the briefs called for a big obsidian sacrificial Altar, inside a shadowy rocky valley, being protected by a sickly tribe of once strong warriors, now defiled by life draining magic.. and then I heard them moan.. "That which we call Brains.. by any other name, would taste as sweet.." =) Times like that make me think, becoming a SF&F freelancer rather than a CA, was actually the right choice for once.? In any case; not a lot of turn around time, but a brilliant simple brief I knew I could have some fun with.. It was also one of my first digital illos, in which a couple weeks earlier, Craig Spearing had shown me just how quick it could be, to manipulate color from a grayscale image.. (my inner traditionalist still hasn't forgiven him for this, mind you.. evil bastard) but he was right! Here's a couple process shots of grayscale to final execution.. A lot of the tones come traditionally from scumming and erasing back into the graphite with deductive marks, before I scan the final sketch. In my limited experience with digital, I also find bringing back some of that original tone from the sketch with the History brush quite helpful, but I'm still on the arse end of the learning curve. Traditional oils will always be my illustration end game, but I sure do like to play with all the new toys, and find new ways of achieving the old. Even though I've quite a ways to go, with a bit of 3/4 theatrical spotlighting, and extreme facial expression, I think this Zombie Holiday isn't too bad for one of my first adventures into the digital world.. Hope you dig it.. Chuck
Zombie Dragon
