From Concept to Final Illustration

I think it's interesting to see how something inventive grows and develops over time, so... I decided to sorta have a little monologue/assessment of how I went about creating the theme for my Print 'n Play game.

It began with some quick silhouette scribbles for character ideas. I knew I wanted the game to be competitive and to contain some sort of resource mechanic (if you read my earlier posts, I made this pretty evident). So... I made up some sort of good vs. evil stereotype. Elves and Demons. But I wanted them to have something in common so there wouldn't be an obvious "bad guy". If that makes any sense. To clarify a bit more, I wanted each side to appear from the same roots, as if to hint they were both just in their reasons for wanting a certain piece of land. That way, when it comes to choosing, the player would go off of aesthetics alone. ...Or whatever they prefer. As the creator, I don't really care which side they pick for whichever reason. It was just something I thought I needed to convey in order to break the cliche.

Then I doodled. A lot. Both sides got a variety of different looks before I started the finalization process, which began a week or two before our illustration part of the assignment began.

Of course, with character comes environment. Especially in video games. So that got some sketches as well. (Also shown in an earlier post.)

Then, these two pieces came about. These were to be the final looks for the two heroes/races of the game, as well as the chosen color Palette. Now, to move onto the illustration!

In the post before this one, I created around twenty or so thumbnails. Out of them all, I chose this one to sketch up further. (I did do four other larger sketches, but this is the only one that matters right now, so..)

After that came linework. This is how I usually start my more complete pieces. Line everything that is close-up or that requires detail. Everything else can be blocked out.

Then comes value blocking. A really annoying part because it requires a lot of tedious brushwork. Coloring within the lines. Ugh.

Now, shading. Also added a few more details to the background to create more depth (as well as show off more game mechanics)

Color, now! Also messing around with the shading a bit.

Finally, a croppsed version (to fit in the 11x17 boundaries) to turn in, with the contrast amped up. All done... until critique, at least!