So, you like drawing and you want to do it for a living? Here’s two simple pieces of advice:

1. Stop drawing Manga and Anthro, especially crude Manga and Anthro porn. No, really. It’s embarassing and no one wants to see MASSIVE SKUNK TITS. What were you thinking? Skunkina?
2. Read this and beware of twunts like him: http://kaitol.com/how-to-hire-an-artist/. By helping the race to the bottom, you’re fucking up your future. Don’t do that.

Follow those two simple rules and you’ll stop holding yourself back. Go take up life drawing if you want to draw boobies; it’s worth it.

For ‘UnderDark’ – the latest sourcebook for D+D. I hate the guy there at the front, but I quite like the jumping halfling girl.

Dava

Here’s the cover for our next SLA Industries book :-

Hope you like it. More to follow.

Dava

Looking back over the countless wars of the Conflict Age, I still feel something like regret. It wasn’t our whole intention to eradicate the Conflict Races, it was simply the most effective way to bring in a new era of order…

It was a shame to see so many species vanish before the dawn of the World Of Progress, especially in the case of the Ty-Tesh – the only race I felt we truly betrayed.

But I feel nothing but gladness when I recall the Root Dogs. They were the most dangerous of all the Conflict Aliens because they were constantly adapting. Each defeat only increase the Core Scientists’ knowledge, and ‘The Herd’ grew stronger and deadlier as a result.

Everything we did, however terrible it may seem – it was worth it all to see the Root Dogs die”.

 Intruder’s War Diaries, 760sd.

More deliveries from Wizards today. This time it was ‘The Plane Below – Secret of the Elemental Chaos’. It was fun working on this book as I got to do some of my favourite monsters – the Slaad :-

Although I do think they should do evil Fruit Slaad – Blackcurrant Slaad, Banana Slaad etc.

Dava

It took quite awhile to get this drawing and inks together. Well, approximately 4 years :-

I started pencilling this image for Soft Companies in October 2005 in Glasgow, the day before I started an art contract with Backbone Entertainment. I got as far as the head and arms, and I thought ‘Nice, i’ll finish up these pencils over the weekend’. Unfortunately, other work came in and the contract work was quite intensive, so it got shelved. Fast forward to September 2007, I found this drawing as I was moving over to London, and decided to pencil in the axe and shotgun. Fast forward to now, as I’m working on the Soft Company sourcebook, and getting ready to move back to Scotland. Godammit, it’s getting done – so I finished up the boots, and inked the bugger.

But ….. it’s *still* not done yet, and I have to greyscale it before it will be classed as complete. Will it be completely finished before the end of 2009? Wait and see!

Dava

The Grey Ones - Step One

Hello again, folks. Here we go with another round of step by steps. Owing to time restrictions (Christmas is my busiest time of year) and the complexity of the latest painting I’m only going to do one step, instead of two at a time. This time I’ll go more into the thought process behind the image, focussing more on the story behind the picture, rather than the technique.

Of course the two go pretty much hand in hand, since the selection of colours, and the performance of light are as important as the drawing that begins the process. I use light and colour to convey mood.

Step One – Base Colour

The Grey Ones are a sorry looking pack. They’re neither Nightmare, nor Human, and they cannot find a sanctuary in either world. As their name suggests I pick the colour grey for the creatures’ skin tone. I also want to depict their environment as inhospitable as possible, so it’s as drab and dreary as the Grey Ones themselves. Later on I’m going to try and make the ground into something alien and inorganic – this is the world beyond sleep. I’ve picked a light blue for their eyes, as I want the them to stand out. The BloodMare was a tireless, brutal killer and I removed its eyes because I didn’t want the viewer to identify with the creature, the Grey Ones are a little different and have doleful eyes which we can connect to. Sure, they’re monsters, but they were also once people like us. (At the drawing stage I made sure not to give the Grey Ones frowning expressions; I wanted them to to seem forlorn and hopeless, offset with grizzly, ragged jaws).

More on this when I get time.

Dava

Well, the first Step by Step is done, hope you like it :-

See you all for Step by Step 2 – The Grey Ones

Dave

Step Nine – Third Level Detail (Metal and Teeth)

Now I’ve got the body done, I move onto the other features. For the sword and metal plates I go for high contrasts in terms of colours and shades. Being inorganic surfaces the colours are very desaturated, but because this metal is weather beaten I switch between warm and cold colours, slowly building them up on top of each other. I add light gray strokes to any bevelled edges on the sword and the armour which really helps the objects to stand out. For teeth, I follow the same procedure as i did on the flesh, but with a sharper highlight, as it’s a harder surface.

Step Ten – Finishing Touches

Okay, so I feel like this character is almost complete, and now all that remains is that I add in any finishing details that I think the image needs. In this case it’s the coarse hairs on the BloodMare’s legs, some blood spattering on the sword, and the teeth. The blood is applied like a Wash, using a Mulitply layer on top of the painting. I finally collapse all the layers, and go out for a pint with Jared, before moving onto the next painting!

Dava

I’ll be uploading the final steps on the BloodMare image tomorrow, so here’s the next one I’ll be painting for MonsterBook :-

THE GREY ONES

THE GRAY ONES

“I dread to think what these haunted apparitions truly are. I suspect they are sleepers killed and drained by the most powerful nightmares. Now they crawl around on their hands and knees like wild animals in the outskirts of The Gloaming. They bite away flesh, limbs and appendages to resemble the horrors that may have once slain them. Any humanity they once had was lost to madness, years ago”.

Dava

It’s always nice when Fed Ex arrives with new packages, containing books I’ve done art for. Today it was Wizards’ new Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons :-

and another parcel from Blizzard with some new World of Warcraft cards. The main set back to freelancing is you have to wait for the art to be published before you can add the material to the portfolio. In some cases you can wait over a year, or at worst, it never gets released (long story on that one). Anyway, here’s a newly published card that I did in August of last year :-

Dava

Step Seven – Back Lighting

This is a quick step I add to a few of my paintings, especially if the background is a dark colour. The Back Lighting is usually a keyline  bright colour that helps to define the form of the character, and prevents it slipping into the background. Since the Bloodmare is predominately red, I’m painting in a sharp cold blue to compliment the warmer hues. I always keep the Back Light as a separate layer until the end in case I want to darken/lighten it for the right results, or change the colour altogether.

Step Eight – Third Level Detail (BloodMare Body)

Right this is where I really go in and add lots of detail, and it can be quite time consuming (2 hours on this Step). The single focus at this point is the BloodMare’s body (I’ll work on the metal plates and sword once I’ve happy with the figure itself), and go from head to foot sorting out the details I want, both shading and lightening as I go. There’s no set pattern at this stage but the main thing is sharpen up the body and make it pop visually. I may step away from it for half an hour or so, and then look at it again, and work on it some more. The paint brush tool is set to 65 – 85% so the paint strokes I’m apply are pretty opaque and final (ie I’m not building up the colours so much as I’m defining the focal points).

(Side note – The image you’re seeing via the internet is more saturated than the image on my desktop)

More Steps coming soon! 

Dava

I got the cover!

Right, on with Part 2 :-

Step Three – Details

Okay, now we’ve got the Base Colours down, it’s time to add some details. These are features and characteristics on the BloodMare’s body that are not yet affected by light and tone. In this case it’s the lighter colours on its torso, arms and legs, also the blood on the jaws and armour, and finally the raw wounds where the metal plates are digging into the flesh (yum!)

Step Four – First Level Lighting

This is probably the most important step in the whole process, and we really start to see the painting taking shape. This is where I add the first layers of light onto the creature. The light is coming in from the top left, and I’ve opted for lighter, warmer colours. I’ve set the brush tool to a mid-level Opacity so I can build up colour on the muscles and contours. I’m still blocking in the lighting with a brush size of between 30 – 60 pixels, I’m intentionally not getting specific about the fine detail, that comes over in later steps. At this stage it’s most important to get depth across in the painting.

The BloodMare was also looking very stark on the white background, so I’ve added a basic dark background to off set the contrast. It’s okay for now, but I may change it as I go along. (For Photoshop users, I achieved the mottled effect by using Scattering in the brush tool features, adding Shape Dynamics, and Other Dynamics.  - I don’t usually go in much for fancy brush presets, but this one is pretty useful. – The brush Opacity was also set to about 45% or so).

More Steps coming soon!

Dave

Okay, so…

Step One – Sketch

Here’s our pencil sketch – A BloodMare, Lesser Demon of Fenntri (BloodShed Concept). I almost always do the drawing in the traditional manner – with a sheet of paper and click pencil. Once I’ve got that done, and I’m content with the results, I scan it into the computer and switch it to a psd file (I painting the image digitally, in PhotoShop CS 3). I set the drawing as Layer One, and a ‘Multiply’ Layer. All subsequent layers of colour are placed beneath this one. The Multiply layer is effectively a sheet of tracing paper, and when I block in colours underneath, I can still see the pencils on top. Over time I rub away the top layer, becoming less important as I add in detail into the painting itself.

Step Two – Base Colour

This is the first real step in the image, and it’s where I block in the base colours. I typically have between 8 and 15 layers at the beginning of the painting, and these are broken into elements – in this case 1. Skin, 2. Armour, 3. Claws, 4. Teeth, 5. Hooves, 6. Sword, 7. Hilt, and 8. Floor Shadow. The colours i paint in these layers aren’t final, and they’ll go through various changes before the painting is finished. This step is really about building shapes, and defining the form.

Coming soon – Steps Three and Four!

Dava

Some sketches from my unpublished fantasy concept – BloodShed  :)

Dava

This is one of the few times I get to do a bit of art for myself. I introduce Tom Tuppence and The Big Stinky! More detail on this later…

Dava