Rogue Promo Art: Painting Process

Rogue Promo Art: Painting Process

Rogue Promo Art: Painting Process

I decided I wanted to light points in the painting, both at different temperatures, to have a nice sense of contrast and to convey meaning; the spooky blue glow from the left suggests mystery and fear, being in a scary catacombs or sewer, and the warm candlelight suggests safety and warmth.

Rogue Promo Art: Painting Process

Rogue Promo Art: Next Step

I finalised a pose I really liked, but I needed to explore what the background and other areas of the image would include so the picture wouldn't feel empty.

The lineart for the painting: after drawing in black, I used colour to seperate the different objects in the lineart to make it easier when painting.

I also explored colour palettes for this painting, trying to find which colour conveys the mood that I was aiming for.

Rogue Promotional Art Sketches

Starting with the rogue, I sketched out some promotional art for their character. I wanted a pose and composition that would highlight their personality, but also be visually interesting and demonstrative of my skill.

Mage Expressions

The expressions of the mage, following the same order as the rest of the expression sheets. It was really difficult drawing open beaks from a front view.

Mage Materials

The materials breakout for the mage. This one didn't have as many different materials as say the warrior, but the colour of the materials is what will make sure they don't blend together.

Mage Colours

Using the colour scheme from my moodboard, I coloured in my mage. The two have very similar designs, but I wanted to explore how the temperature could be varied, and whether or not gold would compliment the design. Personally, I prefer the cold metal to the gold. I also drew constellations in the robe to help break up the patterns and make the outfit look more magical.

Mage Values

Some value testing for the mage. I struggled making the colours pop, especially against such a dark character, but I believe somewhere in the middle of these to design have nice balance.

Mage Outfit

The final outfit design included some of my favourite parts of each thumbnail, but I also added some extra detail to add more visual interest, such as a more detailed brooch, a ring, and tassles on the back. I want to make sure that each of my characters designs are interesting to look at at every angle.

These are the brooch ideas for my mage. I looked at arcane and divination inspirations, and other iconic symbols, like the Illuminati.

Additionally, I changed the head and face again to try and make it look more like a raven. I think the previous design looked too kind, whereas ravens look quite cunning.

Mage Outfit and Headdress Thumbnails

The mage's whole theme was inspired by the school of magic of Divination. Because of crows' and ravens place in folklore and culture all over the world, especially in superstitious beliefs, I thought it would be interesting to give them the magical qualities and aesthetics of a diviner. I included long scarves, flowing robes, and opportunities to place symbols, such as on a brooch or a belt.

Whilst I liked the designers for headdresses, I ended up not using any. As I chose a hood design for the outfit, I thought a headdress would be redundant, and I didn't want the silhouette of my mage to be changed by a headdress.

Mage Body Outline

These were the first attempt at the body outline. As you can see, I used the more realistic wing type, and went overboard on detail. I decided to research into how I could make my character appear friendlier and less scary. I looked at characters such as Kass from Breath of the Wild, and how they turned the quite harsh features of a birds legs and talons into softer shapes.

This was my second attempt at the body outline. As you can see, the version is a lot softer, and has much less detail in it. The legs and calves are much rounder than before, and the talons are much chunkier.

Mage Body Thumbnails and Wing Development

As with the other characters, I used the body proportions of the rogue to estimate the ratio of the size of the head and body. Additionally, I wanted to explore how an anthropomorphised wing would look, so I explored a cartoon-y wing versus a realistic one. I really liked the anatomical one, yet after some deliberation I decided the cartoon-y one looked less creepy and more appropriate for my stylised characters.

Mage Raven Drawings

To start the mage, I studied Ravens and explored how I could simplify them. I knew I was going to struggle with making the Mage look good because birds always look strange from a front on angle.

Throughout the mage's design the head shape and facial features did change quite a bit, because I kept wanting it look more like a raven and not any other bird.

Warrior Expressions

The expressions sheet for the Warrior. I tried to include more asymmetry in the expressions to make them feel more realistic and emotional. I also tried to make the Warrior appear a bit more stoic and proud that the other characters.

Warrior Materials

The material key for the Warrior, includes some new textures such as bone, wool, and horns.

Warrior Colours

Using the colour palette from the moodboard, I coloured the Warrior with the same values as the previous drawing. Also, I didn't like how fresh and clean they looked, so I tried roughing them up a bit by adding chips in their horns, and scratches on their body and eye.

Warrior Values

The values for the Warrior were difficult, as I felt like they were too high contrast and some areas were too similar in value. Eventually I settled on the first design, as I liked the darker horn and leather more.

Warrior Outline

I did a clean drawing showing the outfit of the Warrior. I wanted to also show in detail how straps and parts of the armour would connect. By including bone into the outfit, I thought it would be fun to insinuate that this warrior has killed their predator, hence the wold skull on the belt, and the various teeth and bones on the armour. I also drew one without the horns, because I thought they looked kinda big and I didn't want any detail being occluded.

Warrior Body Outline and Outfit Thumbnails

After deciding the body shape, I drew the outline so I could use it for further sketches, and also showed what it would look like without a tail.

The next step was to do idea generation of the outfit. The top parts were inspired by barbarian outfits, incorporating bones and fur and leather. I liked the asymmetry of the shoulder guards on the top, and the oversized belt buckle and fur on the bottom.