Batcave full process

Hey there guys. This time I'll take you through the process on creating my version of the Batcave from scratch to final colors.

1. Sketch. First of all I did a 2x2" thumbnail of the batcave just to get an idea of what I wanted.

Sketch

2. Building perspective. After I scanned the thumbnail, I used Manga Studio Ex 4 software to create a grid on which my perspective lines would lie, and created a background architecture for the cave.

Manga Studio Ex 4

Background architecture

3. Blue line printing. Once I had the perspective lines and the grids in place, I printed a blue line penciled version of the whole thing on an 11x17  comic book bristol paper. I have a Brother Printer that prints to size. It's really cool, I recommend it 100% it is a very good investment.

This is the penciled version on top of the blue line.

Pencils on bristol

This is the scanned version of the pencils.

4. Inks.

5. Coloring

A) Flats
Using Photoshop CS5 I flatted all the figures in the piece. This is called Flats stage. This helps you to make selecting everything instantly. Be sure to keep a separate layer with the flats.

B) Rendering
Once I have picked up the base colors, I start using different techniques to color or "render" the drawing.

Here is a video showing the process http://youtu.be/c7pJPrv8_LE


 That's it! Questions or comments are welcomed.

The Legend of Zelda Tribute

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.

Video Sketch: Mumm Ra

Let's start the week with some video sketches. I bet this week is gonna be awesome.

Here is the video from Mumm Rah's Art Jam.

Sorry, no music this time.

Digital Art Process : Nadia Color

Continuing with the Digital Art Process Series of posts, here is the third and final state:

The Color Process. Part 1 and 2.

 

Done in Photoshop CS5. 

The only part that I didn't record was the flattening of the colors. This is where you just put a flat color or colors on the art just to have a base on where to start coloring. I'm not saying that this stage is a waste of time, it's just that for the sake of the video not being an hour long I cut this part out.

I hope this series has helped you in some sort of way. Please feel free to ask or comment anything. I will be looking forward to it.

Digital Art Process : Nadia Inks

Continuing with the Digital Art Process Series of posts, here is the second state:

The Inking Process. Part 1 and 2.

 

Also done in Manga Studio Ex 4. I must say that this was one of the first times I got to try this software and it is marvelous. It perfectly emulates the real thing with all its ups and almost none of its downs. Plus, the forever awesome Undo function, saves you lots of time and boosts your productivity.

Digital Art Process : Pencils

About a month ago I posted the general process I follow when I'm doing a commission. I also said that I record the whole process and I would post it. Here it is the first of three posts of the whole thing:

The drawing process.

This was done on Manga Studio Ex 4. My review of the software is still pending. For now I leave you with the video post. Hope it helps you.

Art Jam 4: Red Eye

Continuing with last week's Art Jam Thundercats themed characters, here is Red Eye from the Lunataks!

I do recommend full view.

The lines are from the awesome Marte. The colors by me.

Check out EDSFOX coloring on Mumm Rah

Art Jam 4: Mumm Ra

Art Jam came and went again. Getting better with each edition, we went back to the popular coffee shop with a great affluence of cute girls. This time we had a visitor, Hugo, who just stayed for a while.

This week's theme was the allmighty Thundercats. My character: Mumm Ra, your favorite Thundera sac of evil and bones.

Art Jam 2: Ryu colored

Hadoken!

This is last week's Art Jam Ryu all colored up. My friend EdsFox did the pencils, I did the coloring. It is worth mentioning that I experimented with new tecniques and I was really exited with the results. Too bad that EdsFox lost his colored version of my Ryu. ¬ ¬.

Done and colored in Photoshop.

Inspiration 101: Scott McDaniel

When you finally find that thing that you really like, it's natural that you search for better ways to do it so you can improve. In my case, while I was doing Sevenfold, at first it was exciting to get back on the drawing train, but soon I realized that it was taking me too much time to finish a single page, send it to the editor and continue with the next one. I was sleeping just few hours a day and I was having trouble meeting the deadlines. Illustration is always a race against the clock. You have to produce the best art you can within the time frame that you have, and that just means one thing: you need to be organized.

So I started to do some research on the interwebs, trying to find out how other people do it. I know that this is in a great part a labor of passion and love, which believe me I can honestly say that I have, but there had to be better ways to accomplish the task. That is when I stumbled uppon the web site of Scott McDaniel.

Boy did I hit the jackpot.

Scott is a comic book artist that works for DC comics as penciler for Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing and The Great Ten. Needless to say he is uber talented.

And besides the fact that Scott is an awesome artist, he is a really really great guy. I haven't had the pleasure to meet him in person, but I've talked a couple of times with him through Facebook chat, and he is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He believes in giving back to the art community, so he has a special area on his website dedicated to help aspiring artists to break into the comic book world where he describes the do's and dont's as well as what does one need to start in this business. It goes from the gear you need, tips for the artist, drawing exercises, the process of making a comic book page, cover and how to meet your deadlines keeping your schedule within reasonable times. In other words, it was exactly what i needed.

I cannot express how helpful Scott's website was to me at that time (it still is!). I learned a bunch of tricks that helped me speed up my drawing process, not sacrifying art quality or even time! One of the coolest things I learned was the use of the Light box (which I will explain how I built mine later). If you would be kind enough to pay him a visit and give him some love. I'm sure you will not regret it. Because probably, just as he says, you are here because you love comics and you love to draw.

You can find him on Facebook and on his website, scottmcdaniel.net

Once armed with better organizing techniques, I continue my journey to polish my process and search for more inspiring ways to produce better art.

Art Jam Numero dos: Ryu

First Ryu ever. Honest.

I went to my favorite Starbucks with my buddy EdsFox for an Art Jam. In my book this means Laptops + Tablets + coffee + good looking women = fun. This is the second time we get together to jam, and the idea is to keep doing it and inspire more people to join us.

While the first time we talked and discussed several subjects related to illustration, we pretty much did our own thing. This time we came up with a set of  rules to make it more interesting:

1. We had only 30 min. to draw
2. We would have to draw the same character. (in this case Ryu)
3. We would have to use the same software (in this case Photoshop CS5)
4. Once finished the sketch, each one had to color each other's drawing.

I tried to draw as fast as I could keeping the lines loose keeping that sketchy look, even though it was being done in Photoshop.

It was fun! Of course we extended the time up to 50 min (just cuz we wanted a little bit more detail, and we didn't finish the color part, but we will continue next week.

Digital Art Process : Nadia

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine asked me for a commission for her boyfriend. She wanted a comic style portrait of the both of them, and she wanted it as soon as possible, since the dude was returning from a trip in just a week. Normally that would have been plenty of time for a job like this, but I had another project due to that very same date. Time, my old arch enemy was at it again.

Since I had to do it in just a few couple of hours I opted to do the whole thing digitally. I could have done it traditionally with the old pencil and bond paper, I could even have used my newly constructed Light box (which I will tell you all about it later) but, due to the circumstances this was a perfect opportunity to test my recent learned skills in Manga Studio Ex 4 (which you can see in this). So here is the process that I usually follow:

1. Sketch

After the description of the client, the first thing I do is a quick sketch establishing the general position of the characters, in this case my friend asked me for them both to hold cooking instruments in one hand (supposedly this dude cooks like iron chef) and hugging with the other one. This was already the second sketch for the piece since the first one was rejected. Normally I use a blue and red pencil for the initial lines. In Manga Studio I used the Pencil tool in a blue color.

2. Refined Sketch

With the overall sketch authorized I go further with the details (face, clothes, hair, props, etc). I draw on top of the blue lines (as a guide) making finer lines using the Pencil Tool with a black color. Once I have them ready I send them again for authorization.

3. Art line

Usually I try to be objective with my clients and draw them as similar as I can with the comic book style. This is where I have fun, because I tend to draw them super hero or super heroine like. After a couple of little changes here and there I finally have the artline ready for the inking stage.

4. Inks

This was the part where I enjoyed the most of the whole process, because the art becomes solid and very much stands out. I try to respect the thickness of the original lines and use as much as the original pencil art line as I can, redefining and being consistent with how I'm intending to do with the next stage, which is the coloring stage. I used the Pen Tool for most of the curved lines and the Magic Marker tool for the straight lines. Here is where Manga Studio Ex 4 really stood out from the other softwares I have used. It really emulates the traditional tools, with the digital advantages that comes with it (hello multiple Undos).

5. Color

The last stage it is also very fun and challenging at the same time, because you have to decide, which coloring style you are going to use, if you want to give it a comic book style of coloring or a more painting style, or a cartoony style, it all depends on what you have to offer and what the client wants. Here I opted for a Paint style because that is what I'm trying to get better at these days. Color was done in Photoshop CS5.

Everybody has differences on their methods, but basically this process is pretty much it. Of course the more you do it the better you get at it, and I must say that this would have never been possible If I didn't used Manga Studio Ex. This was the first commission (or for that matter the first piece ever) done by me 100% digital. It really saves you time and steps (in the traditional way I would have to make changes on the original artwork and scanned the drawing in order to color it). I recorded myself during the whole thing, so I will post the video later on together with a quick review of the software.