Dung & Dragons - Concept Art: From Sketch to Color

http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/dung-dragons-concept-art-from-ske...

This is my process for putting together some concept art for a game. Concept art is not intended to be final. I'd give this to a proper artist to produce something more professionally polished or include it in a pitch document to a game company.

I began with a loose sketch in red pencil, traced over that with a normal pencil and traced again with a sharpie. Then I scanned that and desaturated all the red out. Then I increased the contrast so only the sharpie would be visible. With that image, I can begin the vectoring process.

I use Freehand MX for my vectors. It's a defunct program no longer supported by Adobe, but it's what I learned back in college. I could never figure out Illustrator's idiosyncrasies. :P

I create these vectors so it'll be easier to ill in colors and gradients in photoshop. I like coloring at 600 dpi using a dissolve brush. When I reduce it back down to 300dpi, those harsh pixels become softened, creating a pleasant airbrush-like texture.

For the background, I cobbled together some stock vector elements from Shutterstock: A farm illustration and a dragon silhouette. I took that into photoshop to do the same dissolve brush coloring.

» Stock Vectors
http://www.shutterstock.com/results.mhtml#photo_id=21935506
http://www.shutterstock.com/results.mhtml#photo_id=37346008
» Music: Aló Django - Troublant Bolero - CC BY NC SA
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/61449

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• pencil drawing
• anime art
• art
• drawing
• time lapse
• game
• design
• freehand
• illustrator
• illustration
• daniel
• solis