WALKTHROUGH // comic cover - part 2 (Patreon)

Yesterday I posted a detailed walkthrough for my first Horizon Zero Dawn comic cover! I wanted to quickly go through the other two as well, so you could see the same process applied to two different pieces.  

PART 1 // COMIC COVER #2

The process for cover 2 was quite similar in essence! I’ll show you guys the steps a bit more quickly and briefly so you can see how the same process applies to a different drawing. For this issue, Talanah was on her own, but the things she had learned from Aloy were formative in her journey. I wanted to convey this by showing a moment where Talanah things back on Aloy and her influence. Here were my first sketches: 

Then I added some rough color to the sketches, which was especially important in this case to convey the depth and the concept of aloy being a silhouette in the sky. 

The feedback was to finalize variation 1, but with the Aloy from variation 2. So I quickly threw together a modified version of the rough sketch to double check if this worked: 

The client liked it, so it was time to work on the rough version! I start with a sketch to work out the poses and expressions in more detail: 

 Then I add flat color to the sketch: 

 And then I start shading: first just the shadows, and then also more highlights as well:

Once I have the shading worked out, I can work in some lighting effects with gradients, and rim lights painted on separate layers. I also add some lines to indicate wind and movement. 

 I send this version to the client for feedback before finalizing it further. The client asked for me to shift some stuff around so we could see more of Aloy’s bow. 

Then I take this feedback into my final image, moving Aloy to the right and adding that final pass of detail to bring this image to life! This consists mostly of adding a final pass of shines and highlights, as well as fleshing out Talanah’s armor. Again, it’s those small, fine details that elevate a painting to make it feel complete.

PART 2 // COMIC COVER #3

 One more! You guys know the gist by now so I will jump through it quickly. For issue 3, I wanted to portray Talanah in a moment of self-reflection at hte campfire, wondering who she truly is under the armor. First the rough sketches: 

Then some flat color. It was important for the mood to be dark, since I wanted the scenes to take place at night, or the latest stage of sunset:

For these, the glowing light of the campfire played an important role, so I spent more time working out lighting effects for each variation. Here’s the rough sketches with lighting effects: 

The client chose option 3 - they really liked it and didn’t have any pointers. For the final version, I started with a more detailed sketch, working out the pose and expression:

Next, I worked on the background since it is so important for the mood. I used mainly gradients and blurred brush strokes, and of course used various reference images of a late sunset to get the vibe right: 

 On top of this, some base colors for Talanah: 

 Finally, I added some shading and finer lighting effects:

The client approved of this version, so it was time to finalize it! Mainly getting the finer details and highlights right: the loose strands of hair, the highlights on the golden details of her clothing, and the light on her face: 

 And once the client approved, this one was complete!

CONCLUSION 

I hope these walkthroughs gave you guys some more insights into how client work goes for me. I use the same techniques as for my personal work, but I try to break it down into smaller iterations so that I can adjust to feedback if needed. It’s just so important to make sure that there is room for adjustments, and that the client gets the time they need to give their thoughts on the progress of the piece.

Some general tips for freelance work: 

• See it as a conversation, where ideas go back and forth between different people. You don’t have to ‘nail it’ on your first try. Just send over your ideas and allow the feedback to guide your creative process. Never take the feedback personally - it’s all just part of trying to get the best possible result!
• Never spend too much time finalizing or perfecting anything until you’ve gotten the green light to do so! Otherwise you might waste a lot of time working on something that gets scrapped. 
• Put together a good reference folder for your image. For this comic, it was really important to have good, detailed reference of the character outfits. Reference image of beautiful clouds were also helpful! Reference speeds up the process, so it’s extra important during client work. Invest some time beforehand to have those references in one place so you're not frantically browsing for them during the process.

I hope this was helpful! Again, if you have any questions about my client work process, feel free to ask in the comments below! Thanks for reading :)