"Penance" and "Blackout" WIPs

NOTE: Initially I had the image as a part of the article but it messed with the formatting, so to view it you'll have to right click --> view image to enlarge it. I hope this doesn't make it any more difficult to follow.
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From start to finish.

I painted this one on a singular layer, hence the background being complete before I jumped in and did anything else.

I used Opencanvas 1.1, a free [and very old] version of a popular painting program which is used alongside Photoshop. Although Sai appears to be overruling it's reign I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

When doing backgrounds the sky is normally the first thing I do. This is because it helps with the lighting and mood of the piece once I get to colouring the other components.

When I throw down flats it's generally really messy. And it should be. At this stage I really don't care how scribbled it looks, the refining gets to be worried about later.

I did chuck this image into Photoshop for the gradient effect on the lights in the background since OpenCanvas makes it near impossible to recreate an effect like that without a lot of fiddling around.

I added the red lights to kind of separate the foreground from the background. It would have looked really dull and flat otherwise.

Hands are always a pain to draw...I find it's easiest to block the bases without considering how hands should technically look. Think of them not as hands but a series of shapes. Really, everything you draw, should be looked at this way- but I find with hands especially it helps.

Started some soft shadows on Vaughan's [right] face and added detail to Dimitri's [left] face. I can't stress enough how important contrast is in art. Use dark shadows, people! And if not, at least use complimentary colours, to make it "pop." Otherwise it'll end up looking boring and...muddy.

I'm fond of imperfections like wrinkles and freckles. I don't like how glossed over a lot of digital art looks, making people look like anime characters or like they've been unbelievably airbrushed. Which given the primary use of Photoshop to cover faults in photos is understandable, but it's always been a pet peeve of mine. So here you can see I've defined both the freckles and creases in the skin on both characters.

Ahh hair...such a tricky one. I start with a dark colour and work up to lighter colours but make sure not to make the transition too subtle, otherwise it all kind of blends in together. As much as painting each individual strand is a pain in the butt it pays off in the end. It gives the hair body and weight, and makes it look more three-dimensional. I see too many pseudo-realism paintings where it's realistic looking until you get to the plastic looking skin and sephiroth hair.

After I'm done with the highlights I'll add some darker colours on top of it to separate it a little bit, give it more shape, and to avoid it looking flat. Hair falls in sections, remember, not just one big chunk.

Basically complete. This is what it looks like before I do any after-edits to colours and such. The visor was a royal pain, it's tricky to make something flat look 3D. I'm not very good at human faces, and having messed this one up a little I've learned some tricks along the way. Dimitri looks really flat compared to Vaughan, but, no matter!

I added some outlines to them, just to emphasize further the background/foreground difference here. I like to think of my backgrounds as a different picture all together. I like that feel...like they're actors on a set, or something.

I left some areas a tad sketchy- like the hands and the knife. But I'm always a fan of sketchy art.

Lastly, all the gradients and colour adjustments I do with Photoshop. It takes a lot of time and careful planning to get through this stage without destroying the image. I overlayed blue gradients, a sepia photo filter, adjusted the reds and yellows, adjusted the vibrancy, etc etc. Just to give it that atmosphere of war I was going for- and of course to emphasize the red light in the background. I adjusted the brightness and contrast to bring out those shadows even more.

Also, here's a Work-In-Progress of a drawing I did of my beloved blackout!

You can see a larger version if you right click --> view image.





The finished drawing can be found here:

BLACKOUTBLACKOUTBLACKOUT by =MachinesBleedToo on deviantART