Sunday, August 19, 2012

Swordwing



This illustration was created for Dungeon magazine #204 for an article about a creature called (you guessed it) a swordwing. The humanoid, insect-like swordwing collects trophies for it's nest but it tends to fixate on a particular type of trophy item, like skulls, books, swords, etc.

I wanted to nail down the lighting and structure in this picture before adding color so I did a full value study in gray and then gradually added color over that until the piece was completed. The color was added using various layer modes in Photoshop (color, overlay and soft light, to be specific). I actually think the piece is a bit moodier in black and white but I'm pleased with the color version as well.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Jim. I've been terrible at keeping up with NIU alumni. And there is so much art online these days it's impossible to keep track of it all. But I wish I had discovered your work earlier. Very nice stuff. I'll be checking back regularly.

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  2. Thank you, Chris!. I appreciate the kind words and I hope you keep enjoying what you see here.

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