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| I start off with a rough sketch to establish composition,
movement and pose. This sketch was done at 72dpi to help me
move faster and concentrate less on details. After I establish
the 'big picture' I do a second sketch on a new layer to begin
refinement. |
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| With my next sketch I defined the figure more and worked on
the design of his suit and flight pack. I then blow the sketch
up in Photoshop to 300dpi. |
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| Here I've used the Scratchboard tool to digitally
ink the figure on a separate layer. I also blocked in where
the planet and space station will be. |
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| With all my flats put down I can begin painting the background.
I find that if I work on the background before the figure I
tend to not get lazy about it. |
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| I used the Oil Pastel tool (under Dry Media) to do the background.
I've found the oil pastel to be one of the nicest brushes in
Paintier for blending and texture without completely hogging
RAM. |
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| While the comet was done with the Oil Pastel tool, the streamers
were done with a variety of airbrushes. My tablet registers
pen tilt so I was able to aim the spray of the aibrushes in
specific directions to better create the idea of ice bits streaming
off the comet. |
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| The belt around the planet was done with the Oil Pastel tool
while the fine dust was a grainy airbrush. |
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| Stars were added using the Leaky Pen tool. |
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| Using the Oil Pastel tool on a low opacity and a separate
layer on 'Multiply' I've laid in the basic areas of shadow on
the suit and face. |
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| More shadows, same layer. I'm not just working on body shadows,
but the cast shadows from my light source as well. (Shadows
of arms on wings, etc.) |
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| It's hard to tell, but I'm being a bit messy with my application
of shadows. Many strokes go outside my defined lines and flats,
but I'll clean that up later. |
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| On a layer set to Screen I started on the highlights. I used
an airbrush for these because of the strange nature of Oil Pastel
on it's own layer set to 'Screen.' |
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| On yet another layer I filled in the visor,. then used the
oil pastel tool to define shape and cast light. |
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| Then I played around with the layer's opacity and blend mode
until I came to a satisfied look. |
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| I played around with the asteroird belt and space station,
then worked on the suit's wires. I tried to give them the look
of energy travelling in pulses. |
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| Originally I wasn't, but at this point I decided to color
in my lines. I not only colored the lines, but I shaded and
highlighted them as well. This gives the piece an much more
professional look than my normal images. |
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In Photoshop I used the pen tool to create some nice smooth
curves, then filled the shape in. I had two layers on blend
mode Color Dodge and one on Overlady, different opacities
to get the right color effect for the blue swoop.
I also adjusted the colors of the space station so it would
show up better.
A motion blur was added to his tail and knee to give the
figure more punch.
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| So that was the whole process to this image. I hope something
I've said or shown will prove helpful to you in your own work. |
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