January 2018 Illustration Step-by-Step Tutorial (Patreon)

I'm trying something different for this month's Step-by-Step Tutorial instead of images pieced together into a template with text below it I thought I'd type out a proper post. Tell me what you guys think, which do you prefer?  

Now to start off for this Astro Boy illustration I wanted to draw something a bit different from what I normally draw. Something energetic and dynamic, and maybe a bit emotional (something I'm horrible at with illustration). From the get go I knew I wanted to draw damage and machinery, I've always loved the look of complicated chaotic exploding machinery. But from the initial sketch I just wasn't sure how much would be too much. Too much and the piece would be a hectic mess, too little and it just wouldn't get the message across. A good balance of noise and and negative space is essential for the illustration I had in mind. Perfect for a graphic style as well, with little to no background the emphasis will be on the central figure.

Before anything else, I usually make a mock comp and a list of what I want to achieve in an illustration. This and initial sketches are probably the most important steps for me. Once I know what it is I want in an illustration, everything else is just refining it. As you can see from my little list here, I asked a lot of questions to myself.

I've noticed a lot of my work lately have been very reliant on the figure or subject facing forward towards the viewer. Although it does create a very personal interaction with the viewer, I did not feel it to be what I wanted with this illustration. It needed to have energy and a sense of urgency, a threat off screen that Astro Boy needs to face. A Profile View was perfect for this situation. A second thing I noticed is I've been using Red or within the same color range a lot lately, so introducing a color palette using colors I don't normally use would help differentiate from my prior work. That's not to say that a portfolio and/or a body of work can't work with a limited color palette, but for me I like to experiment with colors and have fun trying new ways to color or draw things.

I had a good idea in my head of how I wanted the image to compose. With a good shot of action and a dynamic silhouette. For a central figure in an illustration, silhouette is everything! An interesting silhouette can instantly make a piece more memorable. Personally, I emphasize diagonal lines in my silhouettes to cause tension and utilize curves to relieve and contrast said tension. The machine gear bits breaking off is used as visual noise to break the monotony of the whole figure. I drew the sketch with my  Aufgenommener Brush.

The smoke coming from the arm is used to place more curves as well as to direct the eye back to Astro's face. I compose my images as if the viewer were reading from left to right(at least for westerners), so incorporating a good element to sling shot the eye back into the piece really helps in retaining the focus back to the important elements. I also drew damage throughout the body to show how injured he was and to infer a story, you can't have an epic fight and lose an arm while being unscathed everywhere else!

Framing is also very important, I like utilizing it as a way of cutting out the boring parts(or what I perceive as such) and cropping into the action. Making it personal. Though I do understand that this can sometimes come off as jarring and unfinished if limbs or some important parts were cut off too prematurely. So I make sure everything is readable and there's enough context to tell that this was a stylistic choice rather than a lack of understanding of what it is I want the piece to be or how to make it. Also I draw enough full figures and meticulous details in concept art jobs that in personal illustrations I just want to unwind and have fun with what I personally enjoy.   

Here I decided to place some mock colors, I used a nice makeshift tertiary color palette. A lot of which came from experimenting and adjusting colors with Photoshop by way of Hue and Saturation adjustments. (CTRL+U). The energy blast glow was made with a Color Dodge layer and a Soft Brush. Tried to go a bit more on the graphic side with the little white strike behind Astro, but ultimately decided it was too distracting having a bright white line in the piece.

Onward I gather as much references and inspiration as possible. Anything from colors I like in other works or how certain artists handle and draw the particular thing I am drawing at the moment I place into a large sized file to glance at in between working on my own illustration. It's great for broadening your visual library and creating your own unique take of an illustration by learning from those before you. You can even put in things that have absolutely nothing to do with your illustrations as long as it encourages you in some way. I placed some of my own prior pieces to help me find ways to differentiate with this piece.

I draw the lines using my Line Brush over the sketch layer at 30% opacity. I usually stay very close to the sketch in terms of overall composition and figure placements while detailing and refining areas of interest.(VERY important in client work is to not stray far from the approved sketch btw!) Try to always keep the energy and momentum of the sketch in your final lines. I understand that is not always achievable as sketches can often times have lots of errors and fixing said errors could leave a final piece a bit more lifeless. The trick is to have an inbetween, that is fixing your errors but not being overly meticulous on it. Easier said than done really, as I too like to noodle around something that's off about a sketch for way too long that it turns out lifeless.

As I go forward I decide to add more machine bits and damage. But still making sure it's not too distracting, a good fourth to a third of an image seems fine. Going half an image with that much detail would totally derail the piece altogether. I referenced Fullmetal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, and Akira for beautiful arm explosions! And for the energy blast I referenced the Megaman Zero series.

For the hatching I chose to have the lines follow the figure, nothing too distracting. Also a nice texture contrast to the rest of Astro's body.  

Initial color pass. Started incorporating blues into the wiring to further differentiate colors in the piece. For glowy things, it is very important to show it interacting with the surrounding! Also added a bit of textures in Overlay layers for some nice visual noise on the plain two tone coloring. 

Heightened the contrast and saturation of the piece using Curves and Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layers. Pretty much finished!

Slapped on some kanji on a different font layer to have a poster/book cover quality to it. The kanji reads "The Mighty Atom", Astro Boy's official title in Japan.

So that is it for January's step-by-step tutorial. If there's anything I missed or was unclear about please tell me in the comments. Also tell me what other things I should cover in these tutorials. My grammar is horrible, I know!