I've always been fascinated by the high-contrast visual style of 40k's illustrations, so I've decided to try and emulate the style. For starters, here a few examples of what I'm talking about:
(sorry for the low quality on some of these; they were the best I could find)
My favorites are always the portraits-- the dark eye sockets, neutral expressions and heavy use of black convey so much gravity, as well as a richness of character. It's something I would like to use for a game when I get the chance... Anyway, here are the first two. They didn't take as long to do as I thought they would, so I hope to update this with new pieces on a regular basis. I don't have a specific plan about what to do with these-- right now it's more of a technical exercise-- though I can see turning it into a more cohesive project. Who knows.
For now I'm going to stick to portraits (what I know best), though when I get a better hang of working in high contrast I might try out some figures as well, we'll see.
Crits and comments are welcome as always. You guys think I'm hitting the mark with these?
Replies
I'd say that you may need to tone down the use of the gaussian effect? I think thats what you've used, but i'm most likely wrong. :P
@Unleashed-- yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to exactly hit that 'rough' style. The interesting thing about a lot of 40k art is that it tends to have loose backgrounds but extremely high fidelity characters. I'm still working on getting better edge control, and I think I can still push the contrast a little more.
@Squiggers-- I just used 'add noise' after I put on an unsharp mask. I've toned the noise down a bit on this one, but the reason why I add it is to give the piece some of the grit it would have were it done on paper.
@doeseph-- I'm always fighting the softy digital look; I'm experimenting with some new brushes in Painter to see if any will work better, though I'm reticent to use the actual digital watercolor brushes because of how much they make my computer chug. It may come to that though. As for the characters not looking 40k, I'm intentionally keeping them vague right now so that's not a big deal. The aesthetic is what I'm more concerned with, though I may start doing 40k specific stuff, in which case I'll have to do a little extra research.
Here's the next one. I've spent some more time on it than the last two to try and get something a little crisper. That and because old dudes are harder to paint, what with their craggly faces and all that. A final remark though-- do these guys look interesting? I'm trying to add some richness to their faces, but I don't always want to resort to crazy scars to make them look hard.
I'd definately say it looks a lot better now - particularly as you've added more defination to the character's face, along with the lighting effects that you've put in, which really adds to it.
Nice job.
I think on the whole they are solid illustrations, so keep at it. Study faces (I'm sure you do) and look for the subtle details that can define a face. Scars can help, but I honestly feel the most interesting character you've made so far is the second illustration in your first post, and he has no scars. He has a look of anger or frustration, staring off in thought trying to control his emotions.
Keep at it.
Got back on Monday from a trip to see some family for the extended weekend, and it took a bit to get back up to speed. That and this next one was a bit of a struggle-- I needed to take an extra day on it, and I think I've been painting too many caucasians as of late, so this next batch will be of a more multicultural variety. I want to get one more at least started tonight, and hopefully I'll be a little more productive this next couple of days.
Also, I used some different brushes on this one, some with a little more tooth, and I didn't blend as much either, so I've got more definition but some of the transitions aren't quite as buttery soft. It lends it a different quality, so I'll have to sit on it a bit before hitting that point on the next piece.
What do you guys think?
@Unleashed-- Both good points. Either on this one or the next one i think I'll try with a set of digital watercolors to mimic the effect more accurately. Failing that though I'll just divert into a new style
what that guy asked
I think on the next one you should show much more of the body (or suit) and really get creative with it. Nice Work!
@BradMyers82-- thanks, and you're right about the 'space guy' bit. I had spent 95% of the time on the face, and when it was finished I just had a black silhouette for the shoulders, so I threw on the 'sci-fi collar'.
I'm about to start the next one-- have to run some errands, but I'm going to try for a larger portrait.
The combination of crude, childlike expression with a handlebar mustache really did it for me. Or maybe I've just been staring at a computer screen for far too long. Either way, I haven't been able to stop laughing since.
Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think, and am glad for any tips/advice you might have.
In the mean time though, I've been hunting through reference of ruins to pick the right backdrop. Here's some of the images that have piqued my interest.
Anyway, here's my start on a new one. It's by no means done, I just figured it'd be fun to show what one of the portraits looks like 30 minutes in. I'm definitely going to finish the pair of soldiers, probably after this portrait or the next, so stay tuned!
Lotsa fun.
What's up with this latest one? It doesn't come close to matching the caliber of your others.
Keep up the great work!
Ironically the latest one took about twice as long to do as any of the other pieces-- I've been giving the SAI painting program an extended test run and don't seem to quite have the hang of it (all the others were done with Painter IX). That and the other pieces are all very close to their original reference-- this latest one as an amalgam of different ref's and is essentially a unique face. Though apparently that comes at a price, at least for me right now :poly116:
I'll try again tomorrow or the day after... that's the reason why this is a series and not just one or two portraits.
@Prophecies-- thanks for the love man. The two things I'm trying to do here are improve my illustration skills and try to capture a unique identity/personality for each portrait, so you hit the nail on the head.
You're doing some good work here though. I'm digging the earlier images.
This one is a little over an hour in, and I'm shooting to have it done after about 3. We'll see.
So now this one is done as well. I'm also happy with how the lighting turned out-- I went for the reverse setup of mustache astronaut man and I think they pair well together.
This took more like 4 hours, but I'm happy with the result, and I think I might go back over the last one I did to give it a similar treatment. Right now there's a little too much disparity between how all the portraits have been painted.
And I swear, I will get back to that 2 figure piece. Eventually..
I almost always have reference to work from, even if sometimes it's only a rough approximation of what I want (case in point, for this one I just had a picture of a really fat guy-- there's no actual resemblance between the piece and the ref). In fact I use a dual monitor setup almost exclusively for that purpose.
In this particular case I used the singer Robyn as reference. The front profile is pretty close, but the lighting is my own. More and more I'm trying to divert from the reference so that the pieces can feel a little more original and so that you can't necessarily tell who it's from.
Anyway, first order of the day was to fix the mohawk chick-- she had some serious issues with the rendering and you all called me on it, so I gave it another go.
I'm very happy that I did.
I may still tweak things a bit after I don't look at it for a few days-- also debating whether to stick with the clean shave on the scalp or add some stubble.
Either way I'm just happy with how much mileage I've gotten with this thread; counting the redo and the soldier pair that I'm still working on (it's next in line for some love) there are 8 of these total, and I don't plan on stopping.
I'm interested to hear what you guys think.
[edit] just realized this set is backwards... funny how that turns out.
Ur refined work is suffering from unnecessary refinement, which is - I believe - due to a lack of coherent light-source. U dabble around aimlessly overworking existing shapes without revealing the form more, its just empty detail - and inconsistent at that. Make sure to only put what u need - where u need it. Don't add detail and stuff just for the sake of adding it 'cuz its cool'... try and keep those out and focus on what's relevant, keeping it fresh and real (yea that sounds very gangsta but srsly). The first couple of posts on this thread were totally it.
@shotgun-- thanks for the crit, and you're right about the light source. Whenever I'm not working closely from reference, as was the case here, my lighting isn't nearly as strong. The very first piece I posted on this thread is still my favorite, so after all of the different approaches I've taken in this thread I'll probably be taking what I learned and going back to where I started.
This has been a very fruitful thread regardless, and is one I'm going to keep posting on for a while to come.
Not a whole lot to put down for the first return post, just progress on a new mugshot. This one's about an hourish in; the mouth and chin are still a hot mess, but that'll have to wait for tomorrow. I realized that i mostly avoid drawing lantern-jawed fellas, and with good reason (don't want to get pigeonholed into only drawing superman stand-ins), but it's still fun to give it a go every once in a while.
leave his eyeballs black with just a touch of spec... the devil superman!
Anyway, here it is-- crits welcome as always
For whatever reason, the first thing I thought when I saw detailing along the head-peice is that this guy let Shepard Fairey plaster a mural on his suit. which could be 8 levels of awesome
I'm glad this thread is back up and running :thumbup:
holy shit dood, love that style, it's like an elegant Banksy!
anyway,
love the paintings man!
Speaking of which:
All these portraits you've posted look bored or posed, or otherwise rather neutral.
No one is wh40k is at peace. Even the armor scowls.
Try adding gaunter features, or furrowed brows, or more squinty eyes and the tightness of the cheeks and face that goes with it.. Or heck, google "Scarface" and use Pacino for reference.
Keep'em coming
Just found my old copy of the Games Workshop book 'The Gothic and Eldritch'.
[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gothic-Eldritch-Collected-Sketches-Goodwin/dp/1841541486[/ame]
Have always loved their black and white imagery - their colour work is fantastic is well, however I feel that the black and white lets your mind wander a bit more and fill in the details
Love the second reference pic you posted, I have to say.
Also, I really like the second portrait you posted.
Not really sure what style intrigues you the most, some of their work is a lot looser (second reference) however, some of their work is a lot more refined and polished. Personally I go for the looser work everytime
P.S. Love the dude in the Rhino suit !
@Vailias-- yeah 40k is chalk full of that grim dark grim darkness, though what i had in mind was using the same high contrast style to capture civil war style portraits. I've always found those almost painfully neutral expressions to be really interesting.
@Massbot-- you're more than welcome to give it a go when I finish, it just might be a while before that happens
@BadgerBaiter-- the looser stuff definitely seemed to jive more with everyone, so I may go back to that later. And thanks, I think I'll definitely do at least a few more suits.
So after a long hiatus (traveling) I'm finally back to working on this piece. I've reworked it in a few places and have now started to just steadily clean up until I can start with the tattoos and coloring. We'll see how long it actually takes to finish...
Here's the finished b&w render (finally)-- now I can finally get around to coloring the damn thing.