By Odin, at last it is finished.
This is the longest I have ever worked on a piece, not because of the size of it, because I didn't do it in one sitting but over the course of 3 months, a few hours at the time. Also, I needed it finished it cuz' I want to include it in my portfolio for a special project that is in the making. This is it, I will explain this step by step. Don't think of this as a tutorial, but more like a general description of the whole process.
1. Sketch
Being a tribute to one of my favorite games I wanted to do something that felt complete, I mean with full characters and a decent background in some sort of surprise battle. I also wanted to do a mix up of two of the Zelda games, (Twilight Princess and Wind Waker) so I chose the Lost Woods as the scenery, Link for the first game and Ganon for the second game (my favorite versions of both of them).
2. Tighter Lines
Once the characters and the background have been placed, I started to tight up the lines of the sketch. Doing digital art gives you the advantage of working really fast and to be able to correct things more easily. I concentrated myself on the details such as clothing and the faces first, then I moved to the trees and the rest of the forest. I used reference shots for Link's Shield engravings and his uniform, as well as for Ganon's outfit. I did took the liberty of putting some medieval boots on him.
3. Inks
Then it comes the inking stage. Here I just winged it, trying not to put much thought on perfection or something really squeaky clean. This was all done on Sketchbook Pro so I took the opportunity to experiment with some of the pencil bushes, giving them the appearance of inking brushes with a lot of texture, specially on the shadows of the tree branches. I just tried to have fun with the whole thing.
A couple of detail shots
Now, on to Photoshop CS5. This is where it gets fun!
4. Color I: Flats
This stage is kind of new to me, and I learned it thanks to the fabulous
Art Jams that I have been rocking with my buddies
EDSFOX and
Martegod. Flattening is just creating massive blocking of colors separating all the parts of the illustration. This is the part of the process that tends to be a little bit tedious for me. But, that being said, it is extremely helpful later on. I keep this on a separate layer just below the coloring layer. I used bright and contrasting colors so when I use Photoshop's Magic Wand (Shortcut W ) I don't have a hard time selecting the chunks of color. The fact that you are able to select anything on another layer is just ridiculously time saving speeding things up, boosting your productivity to the maximum.
5. Color II: Base color
Using the flats as my base, I separated each of the base colors I will use for each part. Some of them changed a bit during the process, but you get the idea.
6. Color III: Light Source
I used a visual map for the illustration, pointing out which parts I want to bring out more, maybe with a lot of detail or with a specific kind of light.
With my base color and my visual map ready, I state my sources of light so I can start to color accordingly.
Again this is just a guide. Things may change as I move along.
7. Color IV: Wrapping it up
I focused on the two characters using the beam of light as the main source, I wanted it to kind of reflect on everything around Ganon. I used this as the premise of the illumination and color placement of the illustration. The ambient blue on the background is just to give some contrast and depth to the piece.
8. Sweeting things up.
For the finishing touches, a couple of Hard light tricks and Screen glows here and there, just to sweet things up.
I could describe my whole coloring process as kind of a mood setting using color theory, the message you want to communicate and my gut feeling. You have to know when to stop, and strangely, one nows when it is ready. I admit I have to study more color theory so the jobs can get better, but as with everything, it is a matter of watch and learn.
That's it! Again, it was a tough one but I had a lot of fun doing it all the way.
I hope I don't disappoint all you Legend of Zelda fans everywhere. If this serves you in some way my mission is accomplished. And as always, all comments and critics are welcome.
