Hey, so here's an update on the TaTa Gala piece I am working on of my Star Wars Character Jynx (who I understand introduced herself earlier on here).
Originally I wanted to do this piece traditionally with watercolors, but.....I have six commissions I am working on and they not only take up my desk, but a fair amount of my watercolor paper. So I am using photoshop and my wacom tablet for this, which I suppose is a challenge in and of itself. I did some preliminary sketches before hand on tracing paper in order to come up with a position I like.
Ok, I got the pencil mostly done. What I mean by that is that I have my figure drawn into the space I was planing to use, however I would like to add in something more to the background...say, a brick wall with some murder holes and maybe some graffiti? I do have to say that something I enjoy about working in photoshop is that I tend to stay in the 'sketchbook' mindset of things. This looks like a sketch I would do in my sketchbook, still a little loose, mimicking my love for ball point pens, yet at the same time kinda like a final pencil. Only difference is that if I choose to shade in where I plan to go dark, it won't mess up my watercolors when I take it to the color stage.
I like to start with the hardest thing when it comes to rendering on the computer, and for me that is the skin tone of the figure. I struggle in watercolor as well, but I find that because I am more confidant in allowing the paint and water to add to my piece that it works out well. No so true on the computer, as things are too calculated, so I start here.
Once I start to get frustrated with the skin tones, I let myself move on as a kind of break. I move onto one of my favorite parts to color in on Jynxie...her hair! Doing this also allows me to think about the rest of the image. I know that I use a lot of pink and black for this character because that is kinda iconic for her. I did consider knocking out the striped pants in favor of a military green color to set off the pink, but decided against it. Also, now that I have the hair done it helps me see where I need to emphasize my darks and my lights for the future.
My hand is killing me right now from working with the tablet, so I am going to stop working for a while. I added in a splash more color. With the pinks, I tend to not use the same color over and over again. Something I like about traditional is that once you stop and come back the next day it may not be the same colors as the day before (at least, not if you mix colors in your pallet like I do). I know how to color match traditionally and understand the value of it, but I also like for a little variety....especially since Jynx wears so much pink.
I still have a ways to go on this piece, but so far I am enjoying the work as it moves along.
Ok, it's technically 9/9/2010 and I am adding two more pieces to this blog post concerning Jynx. I started to go into more detail in the rendering. One thing I learned in school about black was not to go with a pure tone unless I need to (which I find is almost never). I added some colors into the black and used black that had a little bit of a hue to it. I also noticed that I am having some issues with tonality.
So I copied the image and lowered the saturation of the color all the way down to get it into greyscale. I know there is a setting to do this, but I like to play with the adjustment layer here. Greyscale helps me think more clearly about tonality since color saturation can throw me off. So I see some areas I want to go into and adjust.
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