Introducing a new concept to the Art Class: The Masterclass! Here, pepokish, myself (or a surprise guest teacher), will have a walkthrough, tutorial or article, without any assignments. Feel free to ask questions, if you want to!
For the first Masterclass, I'll be showing you a detailed, step-by-step of how I made the image for Daxx' card idea - the Harpy. Obviously, I started by looking at some artist renditions of harpies - it helps a lot to know what you're about to create! I also found a very nice pose reference on deviantART; click here to see it (
http://senshistock.deviantart.com/gallery/42276?offset=24#/d211gb5).
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I started off with a quick pose sketch. As you can see, I followed the shape rather strictly - I figured if I would deviate from it, I could do that later. The only place where I did already change things up a bit, was the legs, since I didn't want to spend too much time on something that'd be completely overhauled afterwards.
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Moving ahead; I started blocking in some values. Not how I also changed up the upper body; I was made aware that she was getting, well.. Fat. As such, I modified the torso to a more feminine shape, and remodelled parts of her hips and shoulders for the same effect.
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Skipping ahead a little, you can see that I've worked on the outfit. Since Elements is PG, I decided exposed boobs could be a pretty bad idea. I still wanted to show that she was feminine, though, hence the corset. The jewellery around her waist seemed like a fitting addition. I changed the position of the arm a little to where I found it more suitable.
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I proceeded to work on the wings. A few quick strokes in the direction of the wings, gave a very clear indication of feathers; I expanded on this to create the wing. Also note that I (almost) finished the other leg.
As I continued working towards the other wing, I also notice something about the face bugged me.. Hence, I changed it up a little, giving her a bit more sinister look. I pretty much considered the values good to go, at this point.
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Cut her out and slapped her onto a background, using a few gradient maps for basic colour. Note that I left it rough: I firmly believe that if you paint a character into the background, the transition will be smoother than a clean cutout.
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I turned off the character for a clear shot of the background: Clean, simple, yet effective to portray the figure - exactly what it should do.
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Here we have the almost-finished product: The Harpy's being painted into the background - as you may tell on the left end of things. I also smoothed out some features, and redid her face (again).
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The final product. Finished smoothing, adjusted the contrast, added a shadow, and tweaked the colours a little. I then cropped and resized it, and now she's ready for use!
That's all for the first Masterclass; if you have any questions, ask! Also, if you have requests on what you'd like to see for further ones, feel free to ask.