Legend of the Five Rings - Kyofu Illustration time-lapse

www.steveargyle.com -Epic rants and steaming piles of fresh art.

Hello, my beloved minions. This is the first in what will be a series of time-lapse videos, showing quickly some of my cantankerous process illustrating in Photoshop. I know, a real lesson would have much more video, as well as some voice over explanation. I'm getting to that, really. For now, I'm creating a collection of these time-lapse vids, to later compliment full video how-tos. Which will be glorious works of self-indulgence. I hope to see you all there.

A little about this one: This is Kyofu , from the Legend of the Five Rings collectable card game. A fearless and noble warrior for the Crab clan, Hida Kuroda sacrificed himself to protect the Kaiu Wall from invading Shadowlands oni. In a twisted retribution, he was resurrected, and infused with the soul of Kyofu, the onisu of fear. Kuroda's indomitable will eventually regained control of the body, but could never return to Rokugan. He spent the rest of his days leading the rest of the loyal but tainted Crab against the Shadowlands, outside the walls he once protected.

On the process: I always do a handful of quick thumbnails for pose and composition, as you all should. The way it looks in one's mind too often looks tragically disappointing when committed to paper. Or monitor. Whatever.

Even if the first idea works, I do a few more for good measure. You'll spend a whole lot more time painting than on thumbnails, so getting the composition dialed in is SO worth it, every time.

Then I do the same with color thumbs. I don't actually have old color thumbs of this one, sorry. But again, hear me now and believe me later, get the roughs just right. If a colored thumbnail doesn't look cool, the finished painting won't either. I know you want to launch right into the details. Doesn't usually work out when you do.

As far as the rest, it's easiest to just watch. Basically, I move around and refine a bit at a time. Once I've got the basics, it's a not-entirely-good habit of mine to paint one material at a time. Like in this example, skin, armor, hair, etc. It's something I picked up from my years as a 3D CGI artist, where everything is compartmentalized.

Hope you enjoy, and can glean a bit of wisdom from a meager fifteen seconds.

More to come, and comments and questions most welcome.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• photoshop
• painting
• tutorial
• samurai
• l5r
• illustration
• kyofu
• process
• lesson
• time-lapse
• time
• lapse
• step
• by

[soulrunner66]

Thanks for the video! Your comment makes up for the lack of depth. : ) Excellent painting, very cool to see how it all came together. The beginning is especially helpful, seeing how you tried out multiple poses is cool. Looking forward to full length vids! Peace!