Last time we covered reading the story, finding reference material and your models. This illustration is for the book "Darc Karnivale" to be published by "The Evil Nerd Empire" http://www.freewebs.com/nvhmag1/ and the story is "The Food of Love" written by Joseph D'Lacey. Wonderful satire for any Zombie lover.
Starting from the Top illo down. The first 3 are the original sketches I did of the 3 elements of the painting. The "Brainbuger" first , then the server, and finally the patrons. One of the great things about digital painting is that you can work in layers, which really saves a lot of time and opens many doors that you don't have with traditional painting. Making a change on a digital piece is very easy compared to the way you could spend a day or two trying to make a change in oils. The best thing is to work closely with your art director, showing him everything you are doing in steps. This will elimate most changes.
After I have the sketches done, i put them together. In layers, you can move them around separtly to try different looks for the best impact. When working in oils, I do the sketches on tracing paper, put them together and move each sheet around to find the composistion I like best. But more on that when we do a tutorial on oil painting.
Now that I am happy with the layout, I start adding the details, first thing is to Zombie up the models and add the other details to the painting. After this is done, I do the value study. Digitally I do them either of 2 ways. The values in this one are important but I am not trying to put a lot of drama into it. So I paint all the background areas in grays. Picture a value scale of 1 to 10. 1 being white and 10 being black. The values in the backgound of this piece will be from 4 to 7. No blacks, no whites. I am saving that for the main figures so they will "Pop" If you notice the counter top is black.This pulls your eye straight to all 4 charathers.
Next time we will go over painting the background and creating air around the subjects.
If your not sure of what I am explaining, please leave a comment about what I missed or you need more clarity on.
It's time for me to get. I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. Peace Out.