Angels Don´t Spit! :: A Science-Fiction Cover Art Process

This Is a cover- illustration for Simon Halo´s book "Engel spucken nicht" - "Angels don´t spit" a German science-fiction book.

Since it was a very interesting project, the techie -stuff was challenging, I decided to show off a little of the cover process here.

I use this blog not only to show off my work, but also to give the independent Authors who hire me, a little exposure back and promote this "collaborations" to the public.

I treat every commission as if it will go to my portfolio, when working on 2-4 covers +- personal works a month, clearly NOT every piece is going to the portfolio, but its good to know every piece could. And a blog like this fulfills the desire to give the works that extra-bit of exposure, to show how much work really went into a piece.

First briefing was about a little more steam punk, and therefore metal and stuff, like the sketch shows off:

Since the briefing was clear and I had a little freedom on how to execute this, the detailed sketch above was what I worked out after a few raw loosely sketches.

There were some changes on the headpiece /helmet and with the bleed for print, additionally the cabin was changed on some parts,. This basic colored sketch shows the idea for different lighting.

To get more of a clue what the cabin is all about I worked out a quick model in NSP-clay and some findings. The reason why I put a little more time into this is, that I have another idea with that cabin - a personal work with a Fantasio-girl, so be prepared;-)

While working out the details and over paint them in photoshop, I go basically through the image step-by-step, starting with the difficult part first and then out to the neighbour parts.
Every part is first grouped into new layer-groups and when that specific part is finished, I safe a new version with layer-flattened, in the next version then - and if changes are due -I work on a new layer on top to get the details in.

At this stage, the rough basic painting and base -coloring is, again, step-by-step overworked with details. References help to define more details at this stage and is by far the part where the illustration starts to make real fun. (The skull and skeleton is from a poser render, stock photos just for getting the idea of the materials, etc) Its important to know that a photo or 3d-reference is there to help, but not to make me a slave of the reference.  It helps to get an account for the folds in clothes, seems and such, nothing more, nothing less.

This is the final layout then, (which is not my work) but it makes the book look futuristic and the crop of the illustration teasing.
And since the format screams to make it a wallpaper, below you find a 1440x900 sized Wall for your desktop or laptop screen:

Here you can also find the original colored wallpaper versions from the authors page:
http://www.engel-spucken-nicht.de/load.htm

D&D Pin-up Challenge entry :: Dragonette

Since today is the final day for the D&D Pin-up challenge over at ArtOrder, I decided to put the process on the blog.

I got my shiny new copy of Photoshop CS5 on Thursday and after setting up, it was such a motivation that I skipped another piece I actually was working on for a challenge-entry to ArtOrder.

Actually, it would be a pitty, if I´d miss that chance to do a "Fantasio-girl" and a themed one too;-)

OK, here we go that´s what I came up with, the new brush-engine in CS5 took a while in itself to get into, but overall this was done in about 2 days from idea, process to finish.

A lot has changed while working in the piece, so that´s the reason the sketch looks different than the final piece.

And yeah, the dragon should be a "pet" kinda size, but for any Pin-up fan this should come through...
                                                                                              and pre-colored sketch:
Sketch:

All I had in mind and focused on was the pin-up like face and pose, something that would raise the "oops" character of a typical pin-up piece Vargas and Elvgren would be up to.

Converting such an idea into a modern and especially into a fantasy or D&D world is a tricky task, not impossible, but its important to keep in mind that the pin-ups originated in times when war was daily routine to give soldiers a fantasy while keeping it clean at the same time -a difficult task then and obviously today.

The idea with the Dragon pulling on a cord that keeps together her bra was rather a simple idea, but it worked. At least to fulfill the "pin-up" cliche.

The other benefit of such a genre is the simplification of the style and therefore the possibility to experiment with it. I tried to get the character and the landscape in a kind of watercolor / gouache type of style which I also like.

Below are some close-ups to show a little texture that reflects also the efford to make it look like watercolor on a linen or old paper.

Not that I´m too much into RPG´s, but Tieflings and Fauns are to me the most fascinating archetypes, especially when they are female;-)

The dragon is also completely painted freehand, no reference used, but it helped to have such a dragon modeled in clay a little time ago for another piece called Dragonwhisperer I used to paint one.

Photoshop Brush Tutorial: The Foundations

I was asked often if I can do a tutorial or howto on "just" brushes for Photoshop for how to achieve such realistic imagery like the "Neko-cat"

I must say that I´m still learning the right usage myself, and i´m not perfect in teaching things.

For this howto, I assume that those interested, are familiar with where to find the brush-tool in PS and how to use a Wacom tablet.

I also link to a lot other resource sites, check these out and you have comprehensive resources about brush work in Photoshop.


I have also seen people asking in forums :

But what are the basics, the foundations in CG- art and digital painting?

Well, lets make it clear, digital painting is hard work, though easier than to use a physical airbrush, but more difficult than oilpainting, just to clear things up right from the start!

I was taught physical airbrush in study, and I can say bringing a color to a ground that is immediately dry is a tough medium to learn, nothing can be undone, there is no ctrl-z if the color is applied, its applied.
Oilpainting in comparison is an airing, one can throw in some color, wait a day or two and change things later a layer on top...sorry to dissapoint the fine-artists here, but Oilpainting is easy compared to physical airbrushing with acrylics.

Digital painting can be classified right between these two disciplines.

To master either the digital or the traditional way, one need to learn the basics, which means Pencils, Pencils, Pencils!

I don´t will even speak about the composition, lighting, texturing, mood and color-theory here.
The technique used, is a technique used, not more not less - may it be digital, traditional, mixed media or whatsoever, so the basics are fundamental to every artist!


There are a lot tutorials on brushes, walkthroughs and what not, but lets face it: if you are not able to bring a simple idea to paper, you need to learn the basics -period.

Before even thinking about holding a Wacom pen, one should know how to use the Pencil right, you should be capable to do outlining and shading as also a crosshatch gradient right, like this:

If you´re stuck at this, try to see this as example, it should not take more than 10 minutes to draw this sheet freehand without overdrawing the boxes and without a need for an eraser!

A lot people have problems drawing a really round circle freehand and without technical help, which as a fact, is quite scary!

Master the crosshatch and Wacom is your friend!
If this is no problem for you, you can read on.


Man versus machine

Digitally this is no problem, create a circular selection, fill it with a sphere-gradient and you have the below thing done in about 10 seconds. Wrong!

That´s not digital painting and everyone can tell the difference between a digitally calculated fill algorithm and a hand-painted sphere.

You can make this experiment yourself, make a circular selection and paint in it like above and use the smudge to work it out like painting with oils and do the same with a gradient fill, the difference is like "human" versus "machine".

Below is an introduction to an outliner-ink brush and a fill brush that can be compared to a bristle brush from Corel Painter.

I found this particular from a package which Dan Luvisi has put online for free download, I can only encourage to load this package as it is full with great brushes for clouds and skin-textures as well! Play with the configurations in the brushes settings to get the most out of this brush(es):

 

The eye above is drawn with only the outliner to show how versatile it is. The mountain example shows a nice usage for the texturized bristle brush.

The fundamentals in working digitally contrary to traditionally is, unless you work on a cintix tablet, the different hand / eye coordination (painting here,looking there) practice can take up to mere years until drawing is fun again.

Also digital painting consists of 3 important parameters which constantly want to be controlled from the artist:

• pen pressure / sensitivity (hardware and software)
• transperency and flow
• color and layer affection

My typical brushes for everyday use can be count on one hand.
Occasionally some projects require custom brushes, here you find out how to do custom brushes in Photoshop

There are some important tips that should help making the digital painting practice easier:

• Make a shortcut for strg+alt+z to F1 for example and set the "step back number" as high as possible
• Work every new object on a new layer
• begin every piece with 72dpi and later add more resolution(150dpi/300dpi) when more detail is added. 
• Learn all important shortcuts from photoshop 
• Use the eyedropper-tool for quick colorchanges
• Save very often and different versions
• Never use filters except for some Gaussian blur or sharpen
• start either from dark to bright or from bright to dark
• Never use black for shadows
• Smudge or brush tool use with 60-70% pressure and 90% flow
• Learn from the old masters
  

The below is a standard brush in photoshop and even if it looks generic, see the below example that this brush is far from prducing generic results.

Better you master one brush in Photoshop and know how to use it right, instead having 100 and not knowing how to handle one.

This should lead to a keen observation of your brush and put in question if you could do 80-100% of your work with this one brush alone.

The myth about the evil smudge tool

I will also make some points clear about the smudge tool, it is a sword with two edges:
Used right, the smudge can lead to a feel and results, comparable to oilpainting, Charcoal or even Watercolor, but if used wrong it eats just resources and the results looks plain and obvious.

The smudge can also be a bitch: when used without spacing, it is direction sensitive, which means smudging to the left makes the basic color brighter, smudging to the right makes the basic color darker. smudging with 50% pressure allows perfect gradients, while 85% pressure produces hard/Watercolor like edges.

It should only be used to spread a basic paint.


I had an art teacher who told us students to rather invest 150 bucks in one great brush, than in 10 cheap ones, so I guess Photoshop is an expensive brush, but the message comes through, pick one favorite and stick with it and it can do magic for you !

This sheet shows the use of my favorite brush (a standard one used as brush and smudge).


When picking a favorite brush its important that this brush is versatile as possible, has no generic feel and this must not always be a custom brushes.

Now experiment for yourself and try a quick "from life-drawing" like I did below:

Looks everything but generic, ain´t it?

This blog post should just give an insight on how digital painting can be used, brush settings are subject to everyone´s own experimentation, many ways lead to Rome!

I spare people the exact settings because these are irrelevant, but all important thoughts are in this post, pick the information right, study and master them and results like this should be no problem:

Last but not least, here are some helpful links, tutorials and videos that helped me -though it cannot replace the experimentation, go forth and explore:

• Don Dos Santos Warbreaker Illu -process (check also other Massive black´s dvd´s)
• Diane Özdamars painting-process(Check her channel for more parts)
• The Artcenter-blog / helpful resources from industry professionals
• The CGtalk-forums huge database
• DomenLo´s tutorial-page archive
• ConceptArt forums are not to miss

If this was helpful, (or not) a comment would help me to keep on doing some more howto stuff in the future.

Guardians of Legend: A Cover Illustration Process

I´ve done a lot book covers lately and feel guilty to not give
them the exposure with some walk-through or process
descriptions here, they deserve.

With the most recent work I´d like to change that and like to
begin a recurring series with cover artworks, that were challenging to me in retrospect, the one or the other way.


When i was asked by J.S.Chancellor to do the cover for her novel, part one of a trilogy, she was gladly open to what should be on the cover.
Usually strict briefings were given or a direction is evident.
This project was in itself notable because of the freedom to co-determine the direction of the art.
Even if this sounds like a dream of creative expression, it is a demanding efford to find out what is important, how can it be incorporated and put into one striking piece that will make it through.

As illustrator you need to be the designer, marketing expert, artist, psychologist, salesman and history-teacher all in one person.
The designer need to be aware of the layout and "corporate identity" of the publishers, the artist -part lets things happen, the psychologist for the unconscious and symbolism, etc...

First there was a big empty canvas in front of me even with the detailed info´s about the book´s story.
But some information helped to direct me very good, I list them below to help Authors to provide any Illustrator the useful information:

• providing reference images of artwork that quite good reflects a "to go for" style
• having a look at my gallery and tell which of the different styles are the preferred ones
• writing up keywords which describe a mood, character, correlation to other characters, etc.
• leaving artistic freedom / creative space for ideas and concepts
• Being aware that "less is more" in book publishing, even if a scene screams for a sophisticated outcome, colors, symbolism and faces tell more than a high detailed scene
• Think about various other use and merchandise in advance to increase possibilities
  

The first rough draft is considered scrap to most artists, but its also the initial part of the beginning magic.

At this stage proportions and expression are not as important than to put in the creative thoughts which set the boundaries for the further work, like design ideas, composition, focus, etc...

I leave it as rough and open for ideas as possible.
The sword then became a more intriguing part than i actually thought so I developed it in a separate sketch (above right)

The detailed pencil sketch indicates that I successfully co-determined the idea to give the main character of book one "Garren" the spotlight on the cover.

What I did not knew, but was a happy accident, is that the sword (and the character itself) has a special role in wandering between light and darkness.
So this pose and idea of the "dividing sword" is essential to the content -double win!

The resulting sketch did not reflect the reference at this time, but was influenced by the following approach.

The shoulder dragon armor were another difficult but yet important detail to me, so I did an NSP-clay -model of both, the sword and the dragons skull:

Surely this would be possible to model in zbrush, max or blender easily (for someone who knows these programs very well) but until I have the knowledge on how to use these tools properly, I have done Clay models in twice the time, these took me about 3 hrs. to make:

And its a difference if you do something and feel it with your own hands or just work on it in a virtual environment.
3-dimensional things are meant to be felt, there´s nothing like it.

References are important, regardless if you paint from life or from photography, the important part is always to put the things we seize into question.

Never accept things for what they are, put work and imagination into it to get a better artist, always.



The following is a quick coloration of the sketch with the approach to set a background mood.

My idea was to chose the sky as a background. Not only because its my favorite background, its possible to express good and bad, dark and light, in nearly every thinkable way.

Timeless, mystical, and always fitting to any desired mood.
The coloring was too hard so I decided to get more muted tones for the sky in the final WIP piece.

The pastel-palette was the best way to go, this way it would not distract from the character too much.


In the "progress" I used to incorporate the references for composition purposes, but the final version shows that there was a lot work that went into the painting to get a believable character.



The overall process raises the question how the "wrap around" part for the cover should look like.

My initial response was to just extend the sky around the whole book, which adds space for the layout, blurb and usual info required, by giving this space and keeping the mood from the front cover.

I´m glad this idea makes it into the final, because this way a wonderful "wallpaper" is developed besides, which is another interesting promotional giveaway option to think about for every serious Author.

The link to the larger resolution Wallpaper will be available soon on J.S.Chancellor´s website and on my deviantArt page. Until that feel free to have a look or download this laptop sized 1440x900 version below.

I´m currently working on a "brush tutorial" for digital painting, so stay tuned or subscribe if this sounds interesting.