Illustration breakdown - Noraitha and Zhedha

I finished up this painting for the game Book of Korvald recently, so here’s a breakdown of the process.

After getting direction for the scene in the form of a compositional sketch, I take the idea and rough out the characters and poses. The bartender, Noraitha, was pretty straightforward, but I wanted to include a more dynamic element with the creature, Zhedha. At this point I’m working from imagination, just throwing shapes around and getting a feel for what I wanna see out of this. I have some toys and figures by my desk to help me work out a pose or the lighting.

With the sketch approved, it’s time to go reference hunting. I look for images that’ll help me better design the anatomy of the figures or understand the drapery of the dress for example. Sometimes, though, very specific reference is needed, so it helps to have some specific tools. I use DAZ Studio these days to help pose my figure drawings, then I export the models to Blender where I add the lighting and other things necessary for the scene. I use this as a visual guide to inform my proportions and values, but I don’t rigidly adhere to it. Reference should serve you and your art, it shouldn’t dictate the limits of the drawing and painting.

Next up is establishing the local color and value of the figures and the environment. I went with a cold light in the bar to contrast with the intense warmth of the fireplace. I like working very loosely and painterly in the beginning and then refining/cleaning up as I finish different pieces. Usually the faces are the first things to be ’done’, but everything is relative. The face can only get so ’finished’ with the rest of the piece still needing work; but it at least gets us started. With the face a little done (I’ll say about 80%, maybe), we can work on the arms and hands next. With those a bit more established, we can return to the face and see it could use a bit more work. Then we take a break from the figures and work on the bar or fireplace; with that a bit more finished we see the figures need to be brought up even more. It’s a pretty cyclical process where everything is brought up together bit by bit.

I’ll be honest and admit that I neglected the hands for a while. They can be just as important as the face so I had to shoot specific reference photos for them (and buy a glass mug at the dollar store). The 3D models are great for a general feel, but I still prefer staging my own photos and using them as reference as opposed to messing around with sliders for a long time to get a bunch of fingers and toes right.

With all the reference established, it becomes a matter of time finessing edges and tweaking colors and values until I get the picture where I need it to be.

I hope you enjoyed this process breakdown. If there’s anything you have questions on or would like to have explained in a future post, let me know in the comments. Thanks again!