Official Artist
Pat Lee
Director
, Painter
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122
Posts
" Conceptualizing a Black Dragon"
Alot of people ask me how I start my concept designs. Well, first it initially starts with a crazy idea that I have in my head and then blot it out using Photoshop pencil and sketch it out. This usually takes about 2 minutes or so.
From there I will set my back drop, in this case I used a light gray/green color, not sure why but you can use any color you desire. From there I start greying out certain areas with a brush trying to get an idea as to where my shadows are going to be. You can see in the images that it's very rough to get the basic shapes and idea.
After wrapping my linear dragon with some greys I begin using darker shadows to bring out the contour lines. At this point in time I'm not concentrating much on the detail but rather just the shadows.
Once the shadows are layed out - I being sweeping the drawing with ore detailed shadows again using just a regular photoshop brush (you can create your own brushes). This part I usually spend about 15 minutes or so detailing it out. I love this part because it makes the image look sharp.
Once that's done I add spit/saliva and use a multiple layer to add any outside colors for instance the gums/teeth, blood, bruises or anything necessary to pop out the image even more. After that it's pretty much done. All this usually takes about 30 minutes or so to do - we usually just call this quick conceptualizing to get an idea of how the character would look like, then a much more detailed version is done that usually takes around 2-3 days.
If anyone has any questions about Photoshop feel free to respond on this blog. I love sharing my process with others and always looking to teach those who are trying to understand how conceptual designs work for feature film and gaming. Hope all you guys/gals can support me at the Diesel event coming late this February where I will be demonstrating my art at the BRAVE Diesel gallery.
Will update everyone this coming week on details! ;)
Pat Lee
