Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Painting the Sun King

Moved!
YES!! I'm done moving. You can't even imagine how relieved I am to be done with that! Thank you for all your encouragements, guys.

Two weeks ago, I made another picture for the art challenge we have going on at Avalanche Software. The topic was royalty. I've decided to use Louis XIV, the Sun King.




I always like when people show a little bit of their creation process. It helps me understand new techniques and other ways of thinking. I wanted to do the same, just to look "pro" like them! :) (pour me la pété quoi! :) )

So here are a few steps of the Sun King.

Enjoy!



1 - I always start with a crappy drawing. Lately, I've been so excited to move on to color that I don't take the time to make a good drawing... Shame on me!! I scan it quickly and go to Painter.




2 - I usually select a pretty neutral color to start with. In this case, I was going for the pretty dark color theme of Louis's time. I use the famous "washa brusha" of Ryan Wood that gives me random variations of my original color. I don't exactly know what it is. It’s just magical! :)
Sam Nielson told me something a few months ago that really helped me move on from my "paint by number" technique (see my graphic novel from the last post) to ... well... a better technique! :) He said: "I'm trying to be a messy painter". That really struck me. It's what I’ve been trying to do since then: be a messy painter. (Thanks Sam!)




3 - I mostly use the 2B pencil (with the "Method" changed from "Build up" to "Cover"), an acrylic brush and the washa brusha. Using 3 different brushes helps me to have more texture variety.




4 - I start working more on the background. I should have built up the whole picture at the same time to keep a constancy of color and shape but I couldn’t help it: the face was pushed pretty far along before I even started worrying about the background. It’s a bad habit to work on one little area at a time. I’m trying to change it.
Louis’s neckerchief was almost as bright as the face. I toned it down to keep the focus on the face.




5 - When I’m done blocking the colors, the rest is easy: details! I put a few textures in Overlay to simplify my work.




6 – Toward the end, I’ve decided to put the hand and the scepter back in the picture. I made them small to emphasize his fatness! :)




The end!

I hope my broken English made any sense to you guys. :)

10 comments:

Mark Behm said...

Great stuff, man. Thanks for posting the step-by-step. Those always rock. I can see a little of your brain sticking out now.

Anders said...

Hey Seb! merci pour ce cadeau!!!! YOU RULE!!!
lol, je me répète beaucoup avec vous tous...
mais merci pour l'émulation!
can't wait to see what I'll do with this!!!!
excellent step by step!!
merci merci!!

Anders said...

thanks again, you're a real "pro" ^^

SILVER KNIGHT said...

great tutorial Seb!, and superb fantastic work on the king! ;)

Marco Bucci said...

okay, this has to be my favourite post of yours to date. Such good character, PLUS environment! If I were Roger Ebert, I'd give this two thumbs up!

Ryan Wood said...

Great post, Sebastian! Thanks for sharing the process with the rest us.

S.D. said...

Pfiou, ces décompositions sont toujours aussi impressionnantes, ça me sèche! Contrairement à ce que l'on pourrait penser, cela renforce pour moi le mystère du processus de colorisation, sans doute en me prouvant à quel point en plus du travail il y a du talent! :) Merci! ;)

Sebastien Gallego said...

>Contrairement à ce que l'on >pourrait penser, cela renforce >pour moi le mystère du processus >de colorisation

Ah mince s.d.! Je visais l'effet inverse! :)
Je suis content que ca t'ai plu en tous cas!

S.D. said...

> Ah mince s.d.! Je visais l'effet inverse! <
Je m'en doute bien, et c'est vraiment gentil de ta part, d'ailleurs! Mais ce que je veux dire, c'est qu'en "bon public" de base, lorsque je vois une de tes oeuvres terminée, j'admire, c'est beau, pas de problème, je ne me pose pas vraiment de question sur le "comment". Mais lorsque tu prends le parti de décomposer, on prend conscience de cette part innée de talent, bien au-delà de la part "technique révélée", qui ne peut tout faire à elle toute seule. C'est cela qui à mon sens reste assez mystérieux :)
Voilà voilà :)

Lino said...

Nice WIP and working style, I enjoyed a lot your blog. Thanks for sharing.