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Please go check out my art and designs on Funkylicious.

If you would like to see one of my designs or paintings on the site

please send me a message and I will get it up in the store.

https://funkylicious.com/en/artist/JoshuaStewart

Refining the character from the Silhouette shape

After picking a shape, I start doing a rough drawing over the top, not finished, not really detailed but giving enough information to let the client or Art Director know what your going for, like these..

with this example I took 3 of the silhouettes and added some drawing over the top of each of them. I lowered the opacity and printed them off on copy paper, and drew directly onto the print. this part of the process could be done in photoshop or other program as well. but I like the feel of pencil on paper so I do this when not in a big hurry. Bellow are screen grabs of refining and adding together different ideas.

After showing them again, you'll be asked to combine ideas usually. Take #4's head and put it on the torso of #8 with the feet of #6… just for an example. if your lucky you will get to keep one of the ideas in tact if not its still fun to combine the concepts. I begin to refine them even more at this stage. adding them together in photoshop, and depending on the art director possibly submitting more example of how thing combine differently. like this example from Codename:Demon.

After seeing the ideas it was decided that they were cool, but not quite as GREAT as it could be. So I went throughout the process again and came up with a new version all together.
which turned into this. The idea behind the Codename:Demon character is the monster hides behind a human form. they then transform into a monstrous version, or opposite.

This is a very refined photoshop painting, with some references of the egg sack on her back and an example of one of the props. From here it is easy to throw over a bunch of rough colors. Color studies.

after picking a color I go into refined finish painting using Color layers, Multiply, and Overlay in photoshop. 

The finished looks something like this.

adding notes to explain some ideas is a good idea.

I'll explain about props some next.

Character Design Silhouette Shapes

Here we go this is the first post about some of my process and how I go about working out different aspects of my art, the first step in my character design process. we start off with rough silhouette shapes, focusing on overall shape and having a rough idea of where I want the character to go in the end.

I usually start off with a sketch book and a Sharpie marker, work out some ideas fast not worrying too much about the small details. those will come latter. From there I take them into Photoshop. It is also an option to use a tracer light box or tracing paper to refine the ideas.

So I took my favorites and refined them some filled them in and added a few areas that could be fine details. I showed them to a few people (fellow artists or art director) and got some feedback. these below are based on the feedback received. I have the originals above and the revisions below in this next image… so you can see the changes.

At this point you usually turn them in again to show the art director or client, depending on what they want. When a silhouette is picked I move forward with that direction. As a good side note, I strongly suggest you never turn in anything you don't love or would like to see finished. It has been my experience, if I ever turn in a design or sketch I didn't like that would be the sketch chosen every time. so Make sure you like what your making and never submit something you hate. I'll post the next step in for the characters next.