Another inspiration

Slightly late, but I found another great source of references to this project. It's tv series called "Once upon a Time".  It has a pirate, a ship and costumes. Although, I found this tv series when all my designs were already done, it's always good to look for some more inspirations. Who knows, they might be useful one day.

Gun Design

After finishing picture with Kraken, I still had some time left. I thought of starting a micro project which is going to be a weapon design for Clarice. I already had a sketch, which I did some time ago with use of references, gathered before. Now I had to paint it.

Since my last drawing, I was watching some useful tutorials, which made me realize that I have to put more attention into shading at first stages of painting. This image presents quite nice outcome of my shaded sketch. While looking from a distance, it looks like a 3d model. 

I had to be careful with adding another layers and not to destroy  shading effect, which was my guideline.

My previous practice with texturing wood was very useful for this project. I had an idea about the technique and it definitely saved me some time. I found engraving quite troublesome and I had to study references carefully  to get  this feature right.

I had a chance to try new experience with painting metals. They turned out quite difficult to me but again, referencing was very helpful. I was testing various methods and brushes to finally find the proper way of making this piece. I was also polishing details of wood. I really like the impression of light at the front of the pistol.

Working on trigger was a bit time consuming but at the same time a really great fun. I really liked how it was changing step by step. Also, observing how details start to come up, was very joyful and  motivating for the future work.

Final picture. I am quite pleased with the final outcome. I finally had a chance to draw on a slightly smaller format and as I predicted, it helps in getting nice effect in much shorter period of time. Painting this image took me just a coupe evenings. I thing paying attention to shading is also very important point to keep in mind. I heard before that sketch is very important for successful drawing. I think I could add some shading on a handle for it looks a bit flat in some places. I also feel that the whole design would look more impressive if the barrel was longer. 

Kraken battle

Time to work on my last picture. It’s very different to my previous drawings, although action happens on a ship again. This time Clarice has to face with a mythical sea monster. I chose ideas and scenes carefully, so each one had different character. I’m going to achieve that by applying various color palettes.  Typically, first thing to do was search for references. I found some ideas for the perspective, then looked for ideas for Kraken.

This was the picture I've used 

There are various interpretations of kraken’s appearance  and it totally up to artist which path he wants to choose.

 I didn’t like the idea of a giant squid.

Modern or mutated version also didn’t look convincing to me.

Octopus shape was the one I liked the most and that idea was applied to my kraken’s design.

 With an experience from previous drawings, I set atmosphere of the scene at the very beginning. Again, my point was to make scene dramatic and I needed proper light for that. I decided to make a sea storm, with huge waves and dark, clouded sky. I needed some good references for establishing color board.

Research of waves

Colors for the clouds

Work in Progress

Base colors for setting up the atmosphere. The whole thing is going to be pretty dark so I had to make an outline more visible. Strong red looked quite effective. I had some problems with finding a brush that would be good for painting clouds. I solved this issue with creating my own brush.

Adding boards on a deck and playing with brushes imitating waves. For this image I’m going to try different technique of painting and use many brushes for creating textures.

Establishing source of light. In this picture, light comes from gun’s blast and reveals more details of Clarice and Kraken.

Painting Clarice’s face. At this stage she looks more like medusa than human but it’s still work in progress and many features don’t look the way they should.

I wanted to keep very high contrast between lit and shaded part of the face but it didn’t actually look good. Now, Clarice transformed from medusa to zombie.  I did change that problem but after another few slides.

I detailed hair and started working on kraken’s tentacles. Here I was considering kraken’s skin to be slick and wet. It was my point to make suckers contrasting to the rest of tentacle, that’s why another color was added. Here I was playing with brushes to try out different effects.

I changed my mind regarding tentacles. They looked too smooth and I wanted to try making the skin scabrous. Another layers of textures appeared, then I decided to add some growth on the surface which will look like caterpillar’s sections, but harder. I also changed position of the light so it would emphasize the shape of tentacles.

 I finally changed color of Clarice’s face. I was worrying that by adding skin tones into shaded part of face, it will loose the good contrast. It’s not that bad now, but definitely looks better than zombie’s skin.

 I worked on shaded part of the hair, since I tried to get rid of witchy look. It has normal features now and the situation was taken under control. I also started working on clothes and added gun in Clarice’s  hand. I created a design for this weapon and left it to do in some spare time. It could be my mini project.

 I received some feedback regarding my character’s face. The only clue I got was that “something is wrong” and I had to figure out what would change audience’s impression. I kept staring at her face and finally found the issue. I’ve noticed that her mouth are slightly too wide and open in a slightly wrong angle.

I made some changes that turned out to be too extreme. Now Clarice’s impression is unclear and looks rather fake. But that proved right to my suggestion about problem with mouth.

I moved back to first version of mouth and this time applied more delicate changes. I think that made it and Clarice’s face doesn’t look creepy any more.

 Finished character’s outfit. I didn’t like smoothness of the pants. They had more texture on the surface but it was gone when I started darkening some bits. I will try to add more details later. There is also small improvement in kraken’s tentacles. I felt like they were slightly out of focus, because of unclear edges. I didn’t want to make them precise because then they will look like cut out. Instead of painting strong edges, I added some darker marks all along the surface. Now it looks slightly sharper.

 Here I finally added kraken’s head. I tried to make growths around his eyes to look harder than the rest of the head. I like the final effect of uneven skin, the same one that octopus has. It seems to be all dotted and slightly transparent. I also added some marks that imitate wet skin. I think it worked and I’m planning to use the same method on Clarice.

Final drawing. I added more details to the background and figured out the method of making assets look more detailed. I was looking at references and tried technique that was used in creating concept art for The Witcher. It’s all about adding sharp lines at the end of drawing. Then, without much effort, we get much sharper view of the object. I’ve used this method for deck’s boards. There is a nice comparison to this final image and the previous one. I also decided to add more light on deck’s floor, for it was too dark to me. I decided to use pistol’s glow and extend it slightly on a floor. I think It looks better now. Another thing I did was playing with waves. Now it’s clear that the scene is taking place on the ship, on sea’s surface, not underwater. I also like water splashes, they spread all over the image and now, my character looks a bit soaked. That was the point.

Although, I see progress in my skills, there is still a lot to be fixed. The mast is too big and require scaling. I may also add dome tiny details on it’s metal part, like riveting for example.

Conclusion

Working on this image helped me to learn some new skills and to make some observations.

First of all, I figured out that there should be more light sources than only one. This theory was confirmed when I looked closely at some concept art examples. Usually there are halos from two different sides. I finally had a chance to try new technique, which required using texture brushes. I was using a reference for this style and it really helped me out. I also think, my final outcome isn’t actually that bad. Those brushes help to add texture into the image, which you can mostly see on kraken’s body and on waves. I’ve also learnt that use of strong contrast requires much more effort and sometimes, choosing colors doesn’t always work. I had a chance to notice that while painting Clarice’s face in blue.  My another observation are problems with sketches drawn in hand. When I look at the final image, I feel that Clarice is rather large and fills the whole scene. I was looking at digital art and usually characters don’t stay in the middle of attention. This method is more typical for comics where character plays major role. I have a solution for that and I think I should try sketching inside the software, not in hand. My only concern is my tablet, which doesn’t allow me the same control I have while drawing in hand. That’s the reason why all my sketches were previously done in hand. I’ve got a suggestion, what would actually help me. I can try drawing in smaller sizes first. That might help with better control over tablet. 

Something more. Here are the results of me playing a little with colors and styles. This one was inspired by Sin-City style.

Improved final picture

Here is the final pictures with all points picked up to change. I've got a feedback from my tutor, according previous version, and he suggested using more photo references. The outcome turned out to be pretty dynamic, it also made image look "sharper" and much more detailed.  

In a Tavern

My third sketch was created because of temptation of trying something different than before. Main action was always happening on a ship and this time it screamed for a change. This is why I decided to draw a scene on a shore. There is also a slight change in presentation of my character. Until now I was focusing on creating perfect image of my character. My new drawing presents a bit of bad habits of sailors, berthing to the harbor. Clarice, as a part of a crew, does not stand out from guys and starts drinking contest, emptying mugs full of ale. 

This scene seemed quite interesting to me and I really wanted to show interactions between sailors. Their profession requires a lot of trust to each other and this is why they fell comfortable to celebrate with their mates.

I’ve always wanted to try drawing a scene like that. In my mind, I had a vision of lighting and it made me really excited to start working.

As always I found some references that became my main source of inspiration. 

For lighting in old taverns usually is pretty poor, I immediately thought of very high contrast between light and shade. Automatic response to that was me looking at light and shade master’s work – Caravaggio.

 His paintings always intrigued me and I felt even more encouraged to start.

Here are also some references I was using for designing tavern’s interior. Although you can’t see much of it, it still needs a proper atmosphere. 

With a constant use of references, my work has started. First thing to do was adding a base color and some highlights for candles’ glow.

 First layer at the background turned out to be too dark so I added slightly lighter marks on a walls. I was also considering another light source so I’ve placed a draft of chandelier to check if that will fit or not. To me, it definitely brightens the whole scene.

Starting to add colors. I set the blue jacket as a uniform for the ship’s crew. It’s an English ship and it’s sailors used to be well dressed(or at least the same).

 More and more layers added to bring shapes to life. I added some glow on characters, which will be my guide for the future painting. Now my focus stopped on Clarice. Here, I was changing her facial features and tested colors on her hair.

Then I decided to darken her whole silhouette for the previous one looked like pasted from another picture. At this point I was also establishing which parts of her body should be hidden in a shade and which lit. As candles stood on a table, the front of her body should be bright, once the back remained dark. At this picture you can see my guiding line running along neck and jaw’s shape. These are parts where the light can reach. The rest of the face is hidden behind the mug and according to candles position,  it will cast the shadow on face. For now, I left the chandelier as a possibility and I’ll see what it will look like later.  

On the next stage I thought that the image is missing something. I considered another, stronger source of light which could be a fireplace. As this new light appeared in a scene, I quickly marked it’s glow on a characters.  This simple action really helps in future painting.

 At this point I realized that I’m going in a wrong direction. I asked for feedback to solve my doubts and my objections proved to be true. One of the problems was darkness, which I was insisting on so badly. Now the picture was too dark and it also might be confusing for the audience. Dark colors suggest bad intentions and the tavern looks like the spot for criminals, not like a cozy place for right men. I decided to change it and layered different palette of colors.

Although brighter, the picture looked terrible.  I started working on character thinking that I can still fix everything but the more time I spent on this image, the more I hated it. Clarice looks flat and has no shading on herself. All of a sudden candle glow disappear and at the moment no one could tell where the light is coming from. It looks like 18^th century tavern had electric lamps in a ceiling because the whole room is lit on the same level. This was not the effect I wanted and my decision was to abandon this version of a picture and start it all over again. Otherwise I would be sinking in a wrong conception and wouldn’t be able to move over it.

Before I started again, I did another research on tavern lighting and tried to get deeply into it’s atmosphere.

 These references present mainly interiors so I used my imagination to place characters inside the scene and tried to figure out what kind of shading would be proper for them. I looked at different kind of light than previously. This time I’m planning to make interior brighter and more “orange”.

I also did very quick tests, based on references, just to try if my new point and idea has more potential. It doesn’t seem that bad so I finally was ready to give it another try.

New starting point with different color palette. 

This first image presents base for establishing main features for the image. This time, decision about light sources was made in advance. I chose the fireplace as a main source of light and candles for brightening characters’ faces. There are also marks for details like a trophy on a wall, candles and mugs on a table.

 I wanted to keep style of this image pretty raw. Concept art doesn’t always look polished to the last detail, more important is achieving proper atmosphere of the scene. Keeping that in mind, I did stop myself from covering all the lines. I wanted to avoid the flatness from my previous attempt and really worked hard, with an eye on references, to understand shading and lights. Very helpful to me was also establishing a color palette.

 I played with different brushes and it’s best result can be seen on a fireplace. I had a very great reference of fireplace and that was probably the major factor that helped  me to improve this asset. There were also constant changes in table surface. I was making it to look like wood but every time, it had a wrong tone. That’s the reason for it’s transformations. I made a base for the rest of the crew 

Here I started working on characters. I’m not posting in – between painting pictures but the final ones. There was simply too many of them and the only thing that changes were layers and textures on clothes, which can be described by looking at final piece. Just for the comparison, previous image was my seventeenth copy and this one is twenty fifth . I was spending quite a long time on adding textures to jackets. Now they don’t look that annoyingly smooth and can imitate a fabric.  If you noticed, I changed position of the man on the right, before he was rising a hand, now he’s holding a mug. Erasing his arm revealed some empty space that slightly distorted the composition. To fill the gap, I added some logs. What I don’t like at this image is the captain’s head in the middle of a picture. He looks like an ancient Egyptian art, where every character’s head was pictured from a profile. I’m planning to change it a bit later.

 Some characters turned out to be quite small so I had to rescale them.

Cleaned shape of the table and some details on it make much better impression in comparison to previous chaotic lines. I’ve got to say, I’m really proud of the texture of the wall. It became my favorite piece of the drawing. I darkened it slightly and added shadows on the edges, where light starts to fade and I think that small change, really improved  atmosphere of the picture. As you can see, I tried to make each character individual and gave them different facial features. It was quite a great fun and chance to practice personalization. 

 At this point I was playing with a floor and fireplace for their perspective was a bit wrong. I scaled the fireplace and started wondering if it’s actually looking better to the big one. Again, in such a situation, I asked for feedbacks and voices were divided. The decision was up to me and I had a thought time to pick. A small fireplace added more depth to the room but the big one made it more cozy. The bigger one was also closer and it gave better impression of light. Struggling between options, I decided to keep big fireplace in a scene.

Again, my characters turned out to be slightly too small so I rescaled them. 

The image was almost finished, there were still some details to draw, like mugs. I was looking at some references that showed examples of shading, colors and designs.

 And this is my final picture. I am not fully satisfied with it but I think, I made an improvement. I think, I met my expectations regarding atmosphere in the scene. I can imagine the warmth of the fireplace and cheerful voices. Clothes and poses of characters, on the other hand, look quite bad. I really need to do some additional drawings of clothes and research how they lay and fold on body. Now it looks cartoonish and I’m planning to draw things that look real. When I find some time, that will be first thing to work on. I think I also need to make some small changes. The mug, hold by a captain has quite undefined shape, which is far from a mug. I wanted it to be a wine mug but it didn’t worked out as I intended. Also Clarice is out of size, comparing to the crew. I’ll have to try reducing that mistake. Summing up, there are some things I’ve improved but there is more to work on if I want to meet professional standards.
Improved picture

Here is the new version of my picture, with all changes pointed out earlier. I'm not sure about Clarice size at the moment. Now, the viewer doesn't know that she was the main character and the whole attention should be focused on her.