Trooper WIPS

Alrighty, here's a quick rundown of how I created my latest post. I'll probably go over this all in the meeting, but feel free to read if your bored.

I had been playing my guitar for a while, and as is customary, I got bored practicing scales (mxyalodian can only go so far). Wanting to do something else, I decided to make some scribbles in photoshop; playing around with different techniques I'd been reading up on the night before. I didn't plan on creating an actual finished piece, but these things do happen to spring up on you.

I find myself inspired by both a Boris V. painting in my room and the sound of my brother playing Metal Gear downstairs and figure I'll sketch a super cool soldier chica (say THAT 3 times fast). I try using a background other than white, and since the original idea for the sketch was going to take place in the desert (a buddy of mine was just sent to Iraq, so its been on my mind); I chose a brownish hue to start with. I'm also trying to plan a color scheme, too.

I then begin to block in colors and having trouble visualizing the lighting, I toss a gradient down. Since I'm not too sure how the armor is gonna be, I allow myself to do a little bit of detailing at this stage, just so I have an idea of what will come later.

I'm starting to find myself being inspired by the background gradient, and decide it'll be a dark and moody piece, with fire behind the solider, and perhaps an unearthly green glow of an unseen ship's light in front of her. I begin to play around with the hair some, trying different home made brushes.

Not wanting the armor to be plain, i figure I'll try some textures. This is made from a simple stained glass effect in photoshop set to multiply (a trick Matt sent me long ago for the Dragon piece....holy lord, i just realized I forgot all about finishing that one!). ...Anyway, I'll end up using the warp tool to get it to conform to the contours of the torso.

Now that the picture is coming together, I feel comfertable going in tight, rendering and adding detail. I create some decals on a new layer, then with a custom "grunge" brush, I make dabbing motions with the erasor to give the decals a worn out feel. When I find myself going in too much, I take a break from the character and work on the background. Since the picture is all about the character, I resisit the urge to really render anything out (okay...really, i was just getting tired and didnt feel like thinking the background out). So...random loose brush strokes it is! I've suddenly got a firey, smokey background with hints of a destroyed structure. Awesome!

Feeling inspired by the unintentional good fortune of a simply yet snazzy background, I add more detail and work with some highlighting. Bringing back the grungy brush from earlier, I toss some dirt and grime onto the armor for good measure. I think at this point I even play around with some hue and saturation.

Nearing the end, I take a step back and see whats missing. While I'm pleased with the character, its a pretty boring pose. Sure, there's a hint of some type of conflict in the background, but there isnt much substance or motion. I decide to add sparks or embers floating in the wind and feel this really helps. I also find some decent "blood splatter" brushes online and toss them in for further drama. I decide that her hand needs to be doing something, and change it up so she's holding dog tags. This immeditaly gives her pose and downcast expression meaning, but just enough to spark the imagination of the viewer (hopefully). Is she mourning a fallen comrade? Or maybe upon the end of battle, she's ripped her own off dog tags and decided she's had enough of a life of war?

I play around with filters (levels, curves, color balance, etc) to make the lighting more dramatic. I walk away for a few days and come back to see if there's anything else that might be added/fixed. I see that in cleaning up the character's outline, she's lost some of the slenderness that is prevalent in fantasy characters. Using the liquefy tool (for the umpteenth time in this project - its a god send), I make some adjustments, including scrunching up her hand some, to give it a firmer grip. For the most part, I'm fairly content with the final image, yet see that there's a few things bugging me about the anatomy and pose - I think I'd like the pose to be a little more exaggerated, but fight the urge to obsess over it. This was after all, only supposed to be a bored scribble. So, ignoring the idea that art is never finished, only "abandoned", I call it done and leave it as is.