Last Fall I created two character art pieces for Monte Cook Games. The art is in their recently released Cypher System Bestiary. The book is out now so I can show these.
One of my favorite things to do is to figure out how to show a “story” of the character through their pose, costume, accessories, age, etc. So many possibilities! I showed the client a selection of rough sketches and this is the direction we went. Fun stuff!
I think best with pencil on paper, so I sketched out my ideas that way first. Often I also take rough photos of myself to help me figure out believable body positioning. Then I clean up the rough sketch to make it presentable to the client. Once a rough sketch is approved, then I hire someone to pose for better reference. I work with my photographer friend to get better lighting and higher quality photos (my space has normal height ceilings so lighting from above is a big challenge). I then redrew/lightboxed the characters digitally over my sketch. As I draw, I use what I observe in the reference to make the final picture believable. What I observe includes: anatomy and body positioning, how fabric interacts with the form underneath to create folds, and edge quality of the various value shapes within the form. As I make observations about the reference, I work to keep in mind my intent for the illustrations, how I want them to look. I think about mood, value design, gesture, character design and proportions. These I painted digitally in Photoshop. I’m currently getting more comfortable using Affinity Photo.
