|
   
   
|
|
THE
BROTHERHOOD AND THE SHIELD
 It's
one thing to work on a personal project where you can pretty much do
what you want, when you want. But a commission requires collaboration
and, of course, the ability to satisfy a client.
I
received a commission to do a cover for a fantasy book, "The Brotherhood
and the Shield". The author had some very specific things he wanted
to include, such as an iron gate to a turn of the century borstal home,
and a fearsome tree that serves as a portal to another world.
After we each made a few sketches, I presented an idea he liked:
splitting the scene down the middle, with the reality on one side, the
magical world on the other. The gate and the opening in the tree would
together form an arch, while the book's three lead characters stood
in front.
The
author also knew just how he wanted the characters to look, so based
on some reference photos he provided, as well as period costumes and
stills I pulled from the web, I was able to present a final sketch for
his approval.
 When
it came to painting, I first used a general wash of bright orange to
serve as a "foundation" for the colors. I then airbrushed
some basic light and dark elements, just to see how the overall color
scheme would "flow".
Because this painting was going to be fairly detailed, I started out
on the faces with colored pencils. It's a much easier starting point
for small, detailed portraits, as doing a refined portrait with acrylic
paints takes me a lot of time.
After the background and lighting effects are done, I then go back
to the faces and add more details and touchups with paint.
These
colored pencil "roughs" are best as a guide before doing the
backgrounds. It also allows the client to see how the faces will basically
appear before I go into the nitty-gritty of painting everything. At
this point, I'm still able to make extensive revisions without too much
difficulty.
Now
comes the nitty-gritty. I start with the major colors first, in this
case, orange, blue, and black. I'll go over them in more details and
using other colors as the painting progresses.
Painting
this way speeds up the process for me considerably.
I freaked out after airbrushing these lighting effects, thinking that
I'd gone waaaay overboard. But even though I hated it, the client actually
liked it! (Thank God.) In the future, I swear I'll save this kind of work
for Photoshop; it's easier to use, and if you make a mistake you can fix
it with the touch of a button.
Now the painting comes into its final stages. I experiment with Photoshop
for some coloring and lighting effects, as well as fixing a few flaws
here and there.
You'll notice here that I added more light in the lower right corner,
and (at the client's request) I repainted the forest to make it look a
little darker.
Here the client requested I remove some of the lighting effects that separated
the boy in the center from the other two behind him. And just when I thought
I was done, I noticed a terrible, horrendous flaw: two of the boys' heads
were too big, not in proportion to what they should be...
Whoever invented Photoshop, I'm forever in your debt. A quick resizing
and trimming, and the problem was solved. Here
is the illustration with the corrected head sizes. See what a difference
it makes?
But
I'm still not quite done yet. I decide to experiment with some additional
color tweaking and shading, making the left side of the picture a little
more desaturated and upping the blues, while increasing the warm, saturated
colors on the right. (I do each of these steps in individual layers,
so each change can be tweaked and modified without affecting the other
elements.) It's subtle, but compare it to the picture above and you'll
see it. I also add a little shading on the three figures, along with
a dark circular gradient around the edges to give it all a little more
depth. The opacity of these shadings is only around 10% -- again, subtle,
but it helps add a little more drama to the picture. I also crop it
slightly, making it look a little more centered.
A
few more painting adjustments are made: More shading and color on the
boy's face on the left, shading on all the shirts, and color adjustments
and backlighting on each of the boys' arms.
|
