Background colour update, its been awhile since I've posted because of school picking up towards the end of this semester. Glad to finally get the time to sit back down with this piece for the final stretch of the contest
Paint over Shadow Assassin (mask, scythe and hair) Made some different design choices with the mask on SA, the original began to feel very boring so I decided to go with a more asymmetrical design.
I Faded Kayn into the background, dropping his opacity and giving him a more see through look. I then began to tweak some of the lighting and shadows, as well as adding some glow effects and a motion blur to create the feeling of fast passed movement from the foreground.
I attempted flipping the composition, to see if it would add anything. Although I kind of liked the look of it, the foreground moving left-right kind of killed the uneasy action packed feeling of the original direction.
Switching back to the original composition direction, I noticed there were some issues with the flow of the image. So I took a step back and made some pretty big changes. To start, I re-painted Shadow Assassins scythe to give it a more dynamic perspective. Not only did its original position seem rather two dimensional, being so big and so red it created too much tension in the area between Shadow Assassin and Rhaast. I then noticed some rather boring and unrealistic parallels in both Shadow Assassins hair and Kayn's ponytail. Neither of theses areas seemed to be working and Kayn's original ponytail was creating a pretty bad tangent with Shadow Assassin. I started by re-painting Shadow assassins hair giving it more of a dynamic flow as well as making it more chaotic, really capturing his rush of energy in the moment I'm portraying. I then adjusted Kayn's ponytail to give it more of a natural flow and breaking its previous tangent. There were some more minor adjustments such as moving Shadow Assassins front leg over just a touch and straightening it out, which both strengthened his pose as well as gave it more of a running look rather then just leaning to the side. I also obscured it more in mist to play some hide and seek with the viewer, giving it a more mysterious look. Another little touch was to boost the Lighting in the image as a hole, lighter lights and darker shadows. I started by boosting the light hitting the clouds in the background giving it a nice surge of energy enveloping the forms in the back. The next boost of lighting was in some calculated spots such as the Eye of Rhaast on his scythe, then his knee area, cheek bone and shoulder. Moving over from there I put a nice touch of light on the butt end of Shadow Assassins Scythe, a little on his chest and face and a lot in the hair as it flows back against the clouds. Lastly I really strengthened the glow of Kayn's eye, it felt like a strong focal point and a great place to end up looking after following the spots of high contrast through the image. Lastly I applied a faint green gradient to the foreground, to warm up the colours and have them get cooler as the composition recedes into the background.
I felt the gradient in the Foreground was a little to strong, so I toned it down enough to not make it so overwhelming but keep the contrast between reds and greens. I added in some debris to the foreground to really emphasize the fast paced action.
Lastly I tightened up some of the forms in the background such as the rock wall behind Shadow Assassin, the stone tiles on the road, and some of the buildings and shapes in the distance.
At last I am ready to call it finished! I had an incredible time working on this piece and am really happy with the turnout! I can't wait to see who the winners are after the contest comes to a close. There are so many talented artists taking part in this competition, and it has been an honour to be able to share my work alongside them!
I hope you all enjoy my piece and good luck to everyone!
Replies
Base form Silhouettes.
Base skin line art renders
Base Form Final
BM Kayn (Rhaast) Silhouettes
Rhaast Form Final
Shadow Assassin silhouettes
Shadow Assassin Form Final
Where is the splash? We want the splash!
Rough Line Art Composition Study
Rough Value composition
Background colour update, its been awhile since I've posted because of school picking up towards the end of this semester. Glad to finally get the time to sit back down with this piece for the final stretch of the contest
Base Character Colours
Paint over (Rhaast and Shadow Assassin)
Paint over Shadow Assassin (mask, scythe and hair) Made some different design choices with the mask on SA, the original began to feel very boring so I decided to go with a more asymmetrical design.
Paint over (Kayn)
I then noticed some rather boring and unrealistic parallels in both Shadow Assassins hair and Kayn's ponytail. Neither of theses areas seemed to be working and Kayn's original ponytail was creating a pretty bad tangent with Shadow Assassin. I started by re-painting Shadow assassins hair giving it more of a dynamic flow as well as making it more chaotic, really capturing his rush of energy in the moment I'm portraying. I then adjusted Kayn's ponytail to give it more of a natural flow and breaking its previous tangent.
There were some more minor adjustments such as moving Shadow Assassins front leg over just a touch and straightening it out, which both strengthened his pose as well as gave it more of a running look rather then just leaning to the side. I also obscured it more in mist to play some hide and seek with the viewer, giving it a more mysterious look.
Another little touch was to boost the Lighting in the image as a hole, lighter lights and darker shadows. I started by boosting the light hitting the clouds in the background giving it a nice surge of energy enveloping the forms in the back. The next boost of lighting was in some calculated spots such as the Eye of Rhaast on his scythe, then his knee area, cheek bone and shoulder. Moving over from there I put a nice touch of light on the butt end of Shadow Assassins Scythe, a little on his chest and face and a lot in the hair as it flows back against the clouds. Lastly I really strengthened the glow of Kayn's eye, it felt like a strong focal point and a great place to end up looking after following the spots of high contrast through the image.
Lastly I applied a faint green gradient to the foreground, to warm up the colours and have them get cooler as the composition recedes into the background.
Final
Lastly I tightened up some of the forms in the background such as the rock wall behind Shadow Assassin, the stone tiles on the road, and some of the buildings and shapes in the distance.
I hope you all enjoy my piece and good luck to everyone!