I'm not the most punctual updater but from time to time you'll get something. Today I'm here to show you my latest piece called Iacon's Last Stand.
*Image moved to the bottom of the post for a more dramatic reveal >_>...
This piece was inspired by my many month without a Transformers drawing and a platonic love with the video game War for Cybertron (platonic because I won't get to play it any time soon). From the many videos I watched on youtube from the game, I got a pretty good feel for the atmosphere in it, and of course I wanted to illustrate it in some form.
I'm also gonna share some of the process on the piece:
I started with a small thumbnail, no bigger than 5x3, in which sketched out a small composition of the illustration. This is always a good point to start a piece because many compositional problem can be resolved at this stage.
After that I started to work on the pencils. I made sure i kept the same proportions as in the thumbnail, because the composition could get screwed up. The thumbnail is in proportion to a comic art board, but I wasn't gonna draw it in one. I put the proportions int he 8 x10 page and started digging on the page.
I kept the pencils pretty light since the piece was going straight to inks. I wanted to ink this with brush and quills, but many problems arise, including the the paper not being able to hold quills and the condition of my materials (FAIL). I had to 95% percent of the piece with markers wish I'm not that fond of anymore, but I guess they get the job done.
Now my most anticipated part of the process... COLORING THE 7#^73R!! FOr this piece I really wanted to nail the color theory and create a good balance and atmosphere in it. I was seeing a lot War For Cybertron concept art also looking at Espen Grundetjern color palettes.
I always begin coloring from back to front so I can create the mood in the back and later is just easier to apply it to the figures. Being such a fan of concept art I began the coloring by trying to color in gray scale and later applying the colors....umm let's say that was a failure.
The colors were not getting the right contrast and not popping like I wanted them to, Needless to say I scratched that technique (which someday I'll master...maybe) and began from scratch. I started from colors and was able to create good combinations and contrasts. The figures were pretty simple to color after I got the hang of the background. Prime was the hardest to get to blend into the cool foreground atmosphere. Surprisingly his RED wasn't the one that gave a harder time... It was the BLUE. I got the hang of the red on the cool atmosphere when I realize that if you desaturate it, it blends in quite well. That applies to all warm colors on cool atmosphere and vise versa. The blue I was using was a warmer tone and I didn't realize this until I uploaded the file EVERYWHERE. After I realized that I quickly change the hues on primes blue, aiming for a cooler tone and VOILA now my eyes are at peace.
Hope you guys enjoyed this little walk-through.
Take Care,
Javier
