Making of "Bloodline"

For this week's painting, I decided to paint Raven, one of my favorite characters in any medium, as well as her father Trigon. This is the first piece I'm planning to have as little line in as possible, by the end. Once I get to the color flats stage, I'll be using the lineart as a guideline and will be making it more painterly than the rest of the pieces thus far have been.

Step 1: Digital Rough (1.5 hours)
I created a quick guideline render in Poser 8 and proceeded to rough out the musculature of Raven and Trigon, using the round brush with flow set to pen pressure control. While I grew up on the 2000 cartoon rather than the comics, I'm going with the less waifish comic character design, using elements both from the older comics as well as the New 52. At this stage, the bird behind Raven and Trigon's musculature seem to be in most need of improvement, though everything is rather rough at the moment. Far less so than my previous digital roughs, though, so I count it as an accomplishment.

Step 2: Lineart (1 hour, 50 minutes)
Using the pen tool in Photoshop CS6, I detailed the piece out overtop the rough. I also changed the layout a bit, so that Titans Tower is submerged in what's going to be lava beneath Raven, instead of the confusing issue I was having of Trigon's location in relation to the tower above. Also decided to, at least for now, drop the soul-self from Raven's design, and I'll decide on whether to add that back in between now and the effects stage.










Step 3: Color Flats (3 hours, 20 minutes)
At this stage, I set the base colors for the whole piece, using masking and the paint bucket tool, as well as making the line more subtle than previously so it serves just as a guideline for where to shade next. In the next step, I'll make the line completely gone, as I'll be setting the toning and shading up in its place.

Step 4: Texturing & Shading (2 hours, 20 minutes)
I started this step by adding texturing into the piece, using various water photos for the lava, sky, and various cave and rock photos for the molten rocks about. I also added metal to the burnt metal of the Titans tower. When that was all done, I added in shading, toning in the form of the various bits of rubble and the folds of Raven's uniform, as well as setting up the shadows and highlights. Effects and final touches coming shortly.

Step 5: Effects and Finalization (1 hour)
I added flames and smoke to the burning Titans Tower, as well as cracks to the glass. I also added a reflection of the lava's light on Raven's cloak, and finalized the piece. In the end, I decided that Raven's soul-self would make it look clustered and would likely take away from Raven and Trigon with a large patch of black coming at the audience.














Designed from August 12 to August 16
Total time: 10 hours
Programs/Materials: Poser 8, Photoshop CS6