Monster Munch Pt.1 - Raven Lord

Greetings, as this is my first post I'd just like to thank you for visiting. I'll be showing a lot of work in progress pieces here, along with thought processes, techniques and tutorials.

Ok so here we go; Raven Lord.

So the first snap here isn't exactly stage 1, and I will post soon about 'starting an image', however for now I will just zoom through the steps I've taken (and usually take).

1. Starting with a mid-tone background, why? With white, you can't paint highlights, with black.. well, good luck ;).

2. Sketch - Using a multiply layer, with the colour of the background selected, scratch away until something appears which you like, in my case... this pretty cool floating demony guy with wings...

3. Tonal composition - Blocking in the darks, using predominantly textured brushes, as these make the image rich, while I dull them down later while rendering.

Using Overlay and Multiply layers at this stage to pull / sink the light and darks is very useful.

4. Rough painting - I've started to paint on top of my other layers now with a Normal layer, I do this until the image looks right when zoomed out / defocussed eyes.

5. Rendering - Ok so this is the stage I am currently at with the image, using mainly my Oil Texture custom brush I make new normal layers and start to chip away at the image until it looks good. Useful ways to check your work for flaws are zooming right out or squinting your eyes, and to flip the whole image horizontally (as old artists used to look at their work in a mirror) look for tonal holes, bad composition and the details (too many? too little?).

I will post again soon on further progress of this image with the rest of my process walk-through.

Thanks for reading!

Greg

Upcoming Tutorials -

- Starting an Image (Layers)

- Make your own brushes