|
|
Art tips and techniques and some reviews by illustrator Joe Corroney.
Current Comics 101 >>
Comics 101 Archives |
About Joe |
Books by Joe |
General Forum
COMICS 101 for 12/26/2002
Star Wars Gamer #7 - The Anx
Week Four: Digital Painting over Pencils - Rendering With Watercolors in Painter Part Three
With the majority of the illustration completed, I finally move on to render the last, female Anx character with the smaller, baby Anx on her back. I'm layering this one alien with lots of blues (which I initially planned for and began blocking in earlier) and greys, rounding out the shadow sides of her form. I'm also adding some subtle yellows and just a touch of greenish-blue in the highlight areas. Again, with these complementary colors in the highlights in mind, I'm trying to move them throughout the blue Anx as well as the background and other characters so the colors won't feel isolated elsewhere.
I'm working back and forth between Painter and Photoshop as I often do, drying the wet watercolors of my artwork in Painter (which was previously saved as a RIFF file to keep my wet watercolor layers intact) then saving the file as a TIFF to open into Photoshop. In Photoshop, I can complete the highlights and digital inking on each character as I go along. Once the blue Anx is tightly rendered, I go back to Painter for just a few more touch ups and to finish the rendering on the pink, baby Anx.
Back in Painter, I'm picking up some of the greyish-green tones from the grass in the blue Anx's feet and tail. I'm thinking 'reflective' color here and allowing for some blending with a few more wash tones in the different adjacent textures of the illustration (the grass and the skin of the aliens) which adds a hint more realism and depth to the piece I feel and brings some cohesiveness to the aliens existing in the environment.
Then I complete the rendering on the baby Anx, deciding to keep with the pinker skin tones suggesting a newborn of the species and adding some darker washes of red and brown to the shadow side of the baby alien.
Finally, I dry my digital canvas one last time and then open the artwork in Photoshop. While in Photoshop, I plan to darken and highlight specific areas with my 'Darken' Airbrush tool and my Dodge tool respectively.
The Darken option of the Airbrush tool is a handy feature here because it allows me to subtly go into lighter areas that I wish to make more opaque or give darker value to that are adjacent to even darker tones without painting over or covering those particular pixels. I can darken up values a few steps lower without necessarily eliminating my darker pencil line work that I wish to keep as the basis and structure of my drawing. I'm also further refining the line work for the edges of the aliens and some of their interior details by digitally inking them with my Airbrush tool.
I've learned that the key to any successful painting, no matter the medium or technique, is to have a 'strong' drawing. Keeping the drawing, the structure of the line work, details and composition intact is really the key. I've done this successfully so far by gradually and slowly building up multitudes of washes for my colors, always allowing myself to see the majority of the linework through the tones to know where and what I'm rendering.
While working with the Dodge tool at a very low pressure or opacity, I can also subtly add highlights of white (or other lighter colors) to the areas of my characters where I see fit, usually trying to keep them in tune with the direction and overall feel of my lightsource. By using the tool subtly, I'm careful not to bleach my color tones to white too quickly, which would become too intense or distracting from the layering and style of rendering I've established so far.
With these final touches made in Photoshop, the artwork is now complete and ready to be sent to my art director who then hands it to over Lucasfilm for their approval before it will be published in Star Wars Gamer magazine.
I hope you enjoyed this step by step look at my Star Wars art and one of my techniques for painting over my pencils using my Painter watercolor process. Be sure to check back here next week for a new Comics 101 feature.
Merry Christmas Everybody!
-Joe
<< 12/19/2002 | 12/26/2002 | 01/02/2003 >>
Discuss this column with me at my Message Board
and visit my website at www.joecorroney.com.
Recent Columns:
| NEWEST | You Have the Comic, Number One: A Star Trek Interview (11/06/2008) |
| 10/25/2007 | Download Zombie Prom for FREE at iTunes, My Top Five Favorite Horror Films and The Horrors of Canada |
| 09/06/2007 | Movie Review - Rob Zombie's Halloween |
| 06/21/2007 | Star Wars: Celebration Europe 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Comic-Con International 2007 |
| 05/03/2007 | Star Wars: Celebration IV 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Free Comic Book Day 2007 |
| 03/08/2007 | Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #5 Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art |
| 02/22/2007 | Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell #1 Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art |
| 12/21/2006 | Angel: Spotlight Trade Paperback Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art |
| 10/26/2006 | My Top Five Favorite Horror Films and The Horrors of Canada |
| 10/19/2006 | The Horror Art of Bryan Baugh, Bill Bronson and Tom Mandrake, Movie Review - Dellamorte, Dellamore (a.k.a. Cemetery Man) and The Incredible Two-Headed Marathon III: Horror Hosts Gone Wild UPDATE! |
| 10/12/2006 | The Incredible Two-Headed Marathon III: Horror Hosts Gone Wild! |
| 10/05/2006 | Spike Vs. Dracula #3 and #4 Covers - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art |
| 09/28/2006 | Digital Inking vs. Traditional Inking: UPDATED |
| 09/21/2006 | 'Z' Formation In Page Design - Part 2 |
| Archives >> |
Current Comics 101 >>
Comics 101 Archives |
About Joe |
Books by Joe |
General Forum
COLUMNS >>
Tony's Online Tips |
Philodoxer |
Cover Stories |
After the Golden Age |
Baker's Dozen |
Comics 101 |
CyberDen
|
|
|
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
