march finbar 2023

This mote I want to delve deeper into character illustration and show you an artwork from start to finish! 

The commission is as follows; with my artist friend group we are planning a Secret Santa again, this time round Easter. We each upload reference images of our own characters or our favorite fictional ones in a drive, and make a poster for the person we drew a lot for. This time I got Finbar, from Annalie. 

The references given were great! Here's what makes me say so; the design elements are clear (colours, needed elements like the red flayed hair/bird mask/bird legs)! The shapes are made with three dimensions in mind! 

I also appreciate the (a)symmetry of the design and how I was shown several versions to incorporate elements of! There even was text to tell me about the characters narrative, themes and essential items! 

I start with sketches, based on references found on pinterest. I searched specifically for dynamic photo's that show off an arm, the one that would become a wing later. I ended up with the top left image, trace it and add the important characteristics. 

On the layer on top of that sketch is the initial lineart. This is where the anatomy has to be correct in proportion, and needs every element to be depicted. The expression and outfit got special attention.

On top of that is the actual lineart, which I find the most rewarding. I did this in segments of time, using 'Kyle's Drawing Box - Happy HB' in 14 px both with and without pressure opacity. I remade the hand, the mirror and the hair a few times. The challenge lies in finding the balance between the original key art and my personal style. In general I've lost a little bit of the clear shape language, but the rendering is exactly how I want it. I've changed the mirror and mask a little to be more ornamental and clearly referential to Legend of Zelda (the franchise the character was originally made for). I added a Rito dagger, arm bandages, a small coloured marking on his cheek and had plans for green eyeshadow to mimic a Rito's facial markings. I also duplicated the linework for the head specifically to keep the attention on that detail heavy part.

Time to colour it in! I start by duplicating the linework and turning the lower layer green. On a new layer underneath that green linework I colour everything in with that same bright green. I use the bright green because it's a nice high contrast to the gray and black, so I'm sure to not miss segments where I didn't stay within the lines quite right.  I duplicate the linework to combine with the coloured in layer so the edges stay crisp, it tends to be optional for me.

I lock the opacity, make the whole thing the colour of his skin and then go over with a big brush to block in the colours. Finbar has a lot of bold primary colours, so I took care to block those in the right area's. The red is triangular spaced, the blue shows off some features, the yellow is specifically bird and metal. It was a lot of zooming out and going over the same areas in different colours until I'm content.

More rendering! I put clipping masks on the colourblocked locked opacity layer, and actually did every layer on top separated by colour! From bottom to top it was skintone, underwing, green, white, blue, yellow, red. I usually shade everything with a darker more saturated version of the base colour, and put that wherever I want more shape accentuation. After that lengthy process I play around with the sliders of saturation/hue/contrast. The background is from Breath of the Wild, which I did alter with some smudging and overpainting.

The rest is just polish! Some lines on the background for cohesion! Adding on highlights, stars and noise! The final version has deeper more saturated colours for printing out as a poster :-)