Sunday, November 4, 2012

Mind Flayers






















This Photoshop painting of a pair of Mind-Flayers leading a hypnotized drow (basically a dark-skinned elf for those who don't know) down a hallway was a real challenge so I thought I'd share the process. I won't go into too much detail describing it since I think the images speak for themselves. I began with a line drawing (not included here but typical of the preliminary line drawings I've posted with other paintings). I then painted the figures and the basics of the surroundings in gray, using basic Photoshop brushes. I began adding color, texture and detail, making changes as the picture progressed. The textures were created by pasting texture images over the painting, adjusting the transparency and distorting the texture image to match the perspective. Further texture was added using custom brushes. As you can see, my initial instinct to use an intense gold backlighting gave way to a much more muted choice. The wall relief was loaded into the painting from the preliminary drawing and If I remember correctly, I simply made a Levels adjustment to to darken the colors where the line drawing was loaded. I then painted back into the walls, to finish the piece off.

I've included a detail of the characters. I hope you enjoy the piece and I hope all of this is enlightening!

7 comments:

  1. Great work.
    The wall looks amazing, so does her expression and i just love the squid creatures.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really nice Jim. I like all your choices right down the line. Thanks for the step by step.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A ton of detail is packed into this image. Great stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you all for the kind words! I appreciate them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fascinating tutorial, Jim! THANKS!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're welcome, Joe. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete