Silence on the Mountain: Illustration process part 3

The completed image

The image is now complete. You may notice several changes from the last version, being me; I couldn’t help but mess with the composition halfway through the picture. I moved the forground down so you could see more of the valley, which is more interesting. I then added a bit more mountain to the left of the picture to direct your eye down towards the central elements of the image.  I’ve tweaked the colours to make it look codler and I’ve added mist to the deep valley floor.

The mains character has been radically changed to have more realisic proportions and hair, hopefully she looks more feminine now. The previous incarnation had the shoulders of a rugby player and arms that were far too stubby. The lighting has also been enhanced with rays of sunlight and  a slight glow about the hair.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with it now. It’s certainly a pleasant reprieve from the directness of the last illustration. No gore in this one, just pretty mountains.

Silence on the Mountain: Illustration process part 2

The second work in progress image for Silence on the Mountain

This is the current stage for the Silence on the mountain illustration. It’s pretty similar to the last stage I reckon. I don’t expect the composition of this one to change that much during the process so from here on it should just get steadily more finished looking!

In fact, this one is coming along very swiftly indeed by my standards (maybe I should use Photoshop instead of Painter more in future?) There isn’t really very much to say process wise. I’ve just been attempting to move it along by tidying it up and adding detail. The colour saturation has been lowered slightly to be less garish and more bleak.

One of the most major changes is the addition of clouds,which may be a bad thing as the story describes the sky as cloudless. However, this image could be set later on in the story, and some clouds could have blown over? Without the clouds the picture looks rather empty I think.  I may need some more art direction on this one…

Silence on the Mountain: Illustration process part 1

First WIP image for silence on the mountain

The time has now come for me to begin the latest illustration for stories of atlas. With barely a couple of days to recover from the massive strain of painting the Rite of Bloodlet image, I’m back to the graphics tablet for my latest epic endeavour! So basically I’m painting again, it’s time for Silence on the mountain.

The image above shows roughly where I am with this one. I had originally planned to include the crashed airship in the right foreground of the image, but after consultation with my art director (Mike) it was agreed that this way conveyed a suitable sense of bleak isolation and showed things in a more subtle emotional way than just plonking a big airship wreck in the middle.

There’s no accompanying sketchbook work for this one besides a couple of scribbled notes describing the lanndscape. For this I just dived in head first and got down what was in my head rather than worrying about details. I also used a new method of painting; starting with one layer in monotone blocking out the tones and then adding colour on a second layer. Im pretty pleased with it so far, now for lots of tidying up and detail adding…

Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration process part 5

The completed image

A lot has been done since the last stage, dust has been added, blood has been added, colours have been tweaked and everything has been tidied up, along with various other things. The first thing after the last stage that I did was to paint in the chariot correctly. This would be a difficult task to get the perspective right without a reference picture of a chariot on it’s side. Sadly I didn’t have one, but I did have another trick up my sleeve. I modelled a very basic 3d chariot in google sketchup and turned it on its side. I then used that as reference for the proportions of the chariot in the picture. I didn’t include the fallen horse as it would probably have screwed up the composition slightly by intersecting with the edge of the painting. The next thing I did was properly paint the skewered gladiator in the middle ground. I had to sketch him a few times to get the posture and proportions right before I was ready to paint him in. Even then he took a lot of adjusting to look right. The plate armour he was wearing on the last WIP image has changed to leather as it’s flexibility allowed me to give him a more slumped and defeated posture, rather than the rigid torso that plate would have given him. I suppose he kind of looks like he’s had a bit too much to drink now. Once again the back walls of the arena have been lowered, cause I just thought It looks better. The colours have been tweaked to give the impression of the blazing desert sun bleaching everything white and to focus the composition on Gin. Gin himself has had a few retouches, with highlights being corrected and his tattoos being altered. His tusks have been enlarged at Mike’s request. You may notice he’s also covered in a fair amount of blood now. As if he’d severed a horse’s jugular artery, which he has. I wouldn’t say this was my most subtle or elegant work…

Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration Process part 4

The 3rd work in progress image for the Rite of Bloodlet illustration

Time, I think, for the latest update in the ongoing saga of illustration explanations. OK, so since the last stage a lot has happened.

Firstly, I’ve adjusted the perspective in the picture by moving the arena walls further back from Gin to add more depth to the picture. The crowd has been loosely sketched in and coloured and a runaway horse has been added in the background along with an upturned chariot in the foreground. One of the soldiers has temporarily disappeared and other loose details have been added around the image. The whole thing now consists of 18 layers and will soon have more.

The sketch layer I demonstrated on the last layer has now been deleted as it is no longer relevant. The image has changed so much that overlaying it now simply makes things less clear. The soldier who has disappeared will be replaced in a new position later on, probably lay dead upon the floor instead of stood awkwardly in the process of falling like he was before. I didn’t feel that the previous pose was clear enough, and even someone who’d read the story would probably not understand what was happening in the picture, thus the change.

Gin himself remains unfinished and those of you with keener eyes may notice that his hands need finishing and his proportions likely need some correction. He also has an arrow buried in his shoulder that currently lacks flights. Still,  all in good time…

Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration Process Part 3

2nd work in progress image image for the rite of bloodlet illustration

Portrait sketch

Part 3 is here! And this is where I’m up to…

Since he’s the most important part, I’ve blocked out and painted Gin on a new layer in Corel Painter. I made a quick sketch of Gin’s face so I had something to work from. Since I’m not yet perfect with muscle structure I used reference pics to base Gin’s chest on. So now the Ork gladiator has the body of an Olympic swimmer! (those pictures do nothing for your self esteem I tell ya)

All the layers from the sketch stage are hidden so they don’t distract me during the painting process. I occasionally turn the line sketch on to see where things go. I’ve made this image an animated gif so you can see exactly what I mean, every 5 seconds it should swtich on/off the sketch layer.

As you can see Gin is nowhere near where he is in the sketch. This doesn’t matter, the sketch is just to give me a rough indication of how the scene will look.

You can see an extremely rough version of  the recently deceased gladiator on the left, he’s in the very early stages of painting at the moment.

Still a lot to go yet. Even Gin isn’t finished, I hate painting hands, so fiddly. But even so he’s going to be covered in scars tattoos and blood when he’s fully painted, so he’s not even near finished…

The Rite of Bloodlet: Illustration Process

Hello, Tom McGrath here; Illustrator for Mike Crowden’s stories of atlas. In this wee blog I aim to illustrate for those who are interested (pun intended) the process of illustrating each new story of Atlas, starting here with the Rite of Bloodlet.

Of course, the first step for me is reading the respective story itself and trying to find the best angle to approach it. You may think reading the story is a fairly obvious step, but you might also be surprised to learn how many illustrators are given nothing more than a few words as a brief to work with. Personally I like detail, and try to absorb as much of it as I can to work with. This is partly because I love to immerse myself in the world of the stories but also because I hate getting things wrong. Honestly, the number of times I’ve looked at a book cover frothing at the mouth because the illustrator obviously hasn’t read it and has given Gandalf a sombrero or something stupid. I may be exaggerating slightly but you get the gist.

"Gin" initial sketch

Anyway the next step is to try to find the best angle for each picture, that is; the best way to visually sum it up. Whether I achieve this is debatable. This step usually involves reading everything again and trying to find the most story defining  scene. However, if I’m really lucky I just get told what to do.

With the Rite of Bloodlet illustration I’m currently at the earliest stages. I’m still not sure which scene sums up the story the best, as it’s quite diverse. However, I am sure that the main character “Gin” will feature. therefore I’m trying to decide how he’ll look for starters.

I’ve started with a rough sketch, he’s a a humanoid and though he’s not human I want to make sure that I can convey strong human emotions with him. I won’t spoil the story for those yet to read it but there’s some deep stuff in there. I reckon that in this sketch I’m still a bit off. I want to make his tusks more visible and and make him a bit more bestial while not losing the human side.

Next stage, more sketches…