Resident Evil Rebecca painting with Tutorial
So I figured I'd do alittle walkthru/tutorial of a painting I just finished. Hopefully it will be helpful for some fellow artists out there.
So here is the finished piece and then I will go into my process.
(photobucket is shrinking it and killing the quality so you may want to download the large version from my CGhub or deviant art galleries-
http://cghub.com/images/view/131911/ or http://mikernaut.deviantart.com/#/d3fq7yd
So I had an older Resident Evil portrait study...
... and I wanted to take Rebecca and do a newer full body redesign. Opened up Photoshop and started sketching some body poses over the head. Nothing overly fancy, just a full body stance so I could also re-invent her uniform.
I got wrapped up in also improving her face and making it more realistic. There's a slight younger Natalie Imbruglia influence to her. So I played around with giving her a head wound and some scratches. I also lightened up the face to give her a 'softer" look.
I hit her hair with a touch of blue and purple around the highlights using color dodge and overlay layers. I really liked what was happening. Alot of times I create and try different things on the fly and see how various kinds of layers affect the piece. It might be a slightly slower approach but I find it to be very creatively rewarding.
I also wanted to give her some hardened plastic-ish armor like a stormtrooper or the MNU soldiers in District 9.
Another trick I like to use is making crazy patterns and shapes in the program Alchemy. I will then overlay it on the painting and pull out details and shapes I like to start forming the armor.
I had this image that I have also used on my website's title page.
At this stage I decided to begin working up her torso build it up from dark to light and start detailing some elements to her bodysuit and gear. I thought about adding a hexagram pattern like some of the outfits in RE5 but ultimately decided I liked the slick , cleaner green variants with some brighter trimming. Here I also drop in some digital camo as a overlay to her stomach pouches. LOL ,notice I'm being bad and avoiding the hands for now.
Time to add some logos and more details to her chest plate. Then some plexi/bulletproof panels and strange "rib" armor around the ammo pouches. Also added in a throat mic. Here is where we stand so far.
Ok, time to work up her arms. Notice the build up of oranges and a touch of blue for arm veins and some reflective light. I do this with soft light and overlay layers.
add some blood spatter, rust, grit and some reflection to the armor. I have a great dripping rust reference picture that I love to use as blood splatter. It works swimmingly as a color burn layer, then you adjust the opacity level to your liking.
Time to work on the tricky parts, that's right the hands and feet because I have been procrastinating on them. So at this point I break out my ancient digital camera and start posing in the bathroom mirror to get some reference shots to work from. I also have a Airsoft Beretta auto 9 gun that I have decided to use instead of giving her some machineguns. So I take it outside for some more pics and hope the neighbors don't freak out.
ok it's getting closer.
slap some color and background grunge down.
Now some finishing touches. I grab the Resident Evil logo from my old portrait piece and convert it to a difference layer to get the desired blue version. I also have the techy trim pieces I did for my website which I decide to use for borders.
and just when I think I'm done, my good buddy Rob gives me a helpful critique and says that her left leg looks too long. Sure enough I've been looking at the piece for soo long I didn't see it until he said something. So I go back in and tweak it. She loses alittle something in the initial pose but we can't have a freak leg on her. hah!
There was definitely room to push the pose and the weight on her hips . Something I should have worked up better in the early stages. A lesson for next time.
Well that's a wrap. Hope it was somewhat helpful.
So here is the finished piece and then I will go into my process.
(photobucket is shrinking it and killing the quality so you may want to download the large version from my CGhub or deviant art galleries-
http://cghub.com/images/view/131911/ or http://mikernaut.deviantart.com/#/d3fq7yd
So I had an older Resident Evil portrait study...
... and I wanted to take Rebecca and do a newer full body redesign. Opened up Photoshop and started sketching some body poses over the head. Nothing overly fancy, just a full body stance so I could also re-invent her uniform.
I got wrapped up in also improving her face and making it more realistic. There's a slight younger Natalie Imbruglia influence to her. So I played around with giving her a head wound and some scratches. I also lightened up the face to give her a 'softer" look.
I hit her hair with a touch of blue and purple around the highlights using color dodge and overlay layers. I really liked what was happening. Alot of times I create and try different things on the fly and see how various kinds of layers affect the piece. It might be a slightly slower approach but I find it to be very creatively rewarding.
I also wanted to give her some hardened plastic-ish armor like a stormtrooper or the MNU soldiers in District 9.
Another trick I like to use is making crazy patterns and shapes in the program Alchemy. I will then overlay it on the painting and pull out details and shapes I like to start forming the armor.
I had this image that I have also used on my website's title page.
At this stage I decided to begin working up her torso build it up from dark to light and start detailing some elements to her bodysuit and gear. I thought about adding a hexagram pattern like some of the outfits in RE5 but ultimately decided I liked the slick , cleaner green variants with some brighter trimming. Here I also drop in some digital camo as a overlay to her stomach pouches. LOL ,notice I'm being bad and avoiding the hands for now.
Time to add some logos and more details to her chest plate. Then some plexi/bulletproof panels and strange "rib" armor around the ammo pouches. Also added in a throat mic. Here is where we stand so far.
Ok, time to work up her arms. Notice the build up of oranges and a touch of blue for arm veins and some reflective light. I do this with soft light and overlay layers.
add some blood spatter, rust, grit and some reflection to the armor. I have a great dripping rust reference picture that I love to use as blood splatter. It works swimmingly as a color burn layer, then you adjust the opacity level to your liking.
Time to work on the tricky parts, that's right the hands and feet because I have been procrastinating on them. So at this point I break out my ancient digital camera and start posing in the bathroom mirror to get some reference shots to work from. I also have a Airsoft Beretta auto 9 gun that I have decided to use instead of giving her some machineguns. So I take it outside for some more pics and hope the neighbors don't freak out.
ok it's getting closer.
slap some color and background grunge down.
Now some finishing touches. I grab the Resident Evil logo from my old portrait piece and convert it to a difference layer to get the desired blue version. I also have the techy trim pieces I did for my website which I decide to use for borders.
and just when I think I'm done, my good buddy Rob gives me a helpful critique and says that her left leg looks too long. Sure enough I've been looking at the piece for soo long I didn't see it until he said something. So I go back in and tweak it. She loses alittle something in the initial pose but we can't have a freak leg on her. hah!
There was definitely room to push the pose and the weight on her hips . Something I should have worked up better in the early stages. A lesson for next time.
Well that's a wrap. Hope it was somewhat helpful.
Replies
good job on both!