Painting an Imaginary World

Painting a fantasy world based on a story is always challenging work; in 9 steps Rabie Rahou will reveal his key techniques to achieve this.

In my spare time I imagined a fantastic world that I named the "World of Tosor" ('in a parallel future exists an immortal powerful lord named Tosor. Both discreet and fair, he guarantees the peace and harmony
of the world.').

In this article, I will show how I painted the first piece of the series, World of Tosor. I will walk through different techniques for the lighting and shading. Also, I will discuss the framing and the compositing of a
successful scene.

Step 1: Framing and the composition

First, I painted a good composition in grey value. This step is foundational for the rest of the work. It determines if this work has potential to become a high value piece or just another sketch in the hard drive.

In order to have a decent composition, we have to correctly order the elements as the ‘foreground', the ‘subject', and
the ‘background'.

To create depth, elements closer to the viewer should be darker and elements further away should be brighter.

I paint only the most important elements, I try to convey the story with minimum details

I paint only the most important elements, I try to convey the story with minimum details

Step 2: Lighting

The composition is good. At this point I start to give some shading to the model. I will try different lighting from different directions. The character lighting will determine how I will paint the lighting for the rest of the scene. After a few years of painting you can develop an instinctive reflex to know what kind of lighting will be the best. In this case, I knew that if the key light reflects on his back I will achieve a mystical effect, creating a sense of mystery with his face unlit.

I try different lighting in order to define the best suitable setup for the main character and the story

I try different lighting in order to define the best suitable setup for the main character and the story

Step 3: Coloring

Let's not get too crazy. I know when it comes to coloring we want try everything. But let's start in the red/yellow spectrum.

I choose to color the main character with the red. This choice will affect everything in this image. As we see in the first image, the result is not very exciting. But in image 2, when I added the fur on the creature with a more contrasting color, I start have some results.

In the next step I will show my techniques to paint hair and fur.

The first choice of colors will affect all the work later

The first choice of colors will affect all the work later

Step 4: Painting hair and fur

Basically, there are two steps: hair creation and hair brushing.

In the vignette A, I painted some hair in different directions with the Dune grass brush. Afterwards, I start brushing and styling with the Smudge tool using the flat angle brush.

In the vignette B, I brushed it and added an ambient light to look fluffy.

In the vignette C, I wanted to have smooth hair. So I added more contrast and eliminated the thin hairs.

In the vignette D, I wanted to try a curly effect so I brushed in curly/circular motions. I added some lighting to make the hair look fluffier rather than smooth.

In the vignette E, the hair is thicker and denser. It is the kind of fur that I want on my creature.

The lighting and brushing are the keys to creating believable hair and fur

The lighting and brushing are the keys to creating believable hair and fur

Step 5: Painting the background and its interpretation

In this step I worked on the background. I painted the basic shapes and colors of the mountain and the terrain. I'm not thinking about the interpretation of the image just yet.

In vignette 2, I started working on the story. I wanted that valley to look fantastic. Tosor must take a deep breath when he is watching this landscape from his hill. It must also look harmonic.

The light casting on the atmosphere is the key. Because the character is lit from below and behind, I set the mood with the sunset.

Just part of the mountain should be lit to simulate a complex environment and create the feeling that maybe another mountain is casting that shadow. The colors are within the purple spectrum, but the main sunlight is yellow. I added some clouds from my library and fine-tuned everything.

The background will complete the story. It will set the time and space for the hero

The background will complete the story. It will set the time and space for the hero

Step 6: Detailing

I took a jump on this step. I painted armor for the big creature and I shaded the tree. Also, as you can see, I added a small creature on the tree.

Now, the work needs to be shown to someone who doesn't know anything about CG. I call it "The man from the street". Why? Because this kind of person will give you true feedback.

My friend pointed directly at the small creature on the tree and the strange form of the horn on the larger beast. He didn't recognize the small creature, which bothered him and the horn was too strange. No need to go further and explain to him ‘why'. Things must be sacrificed.

In the detailing process, lots of choices and options are open for us. But, not all of them are good

In the detailing process, lots of choices and options are open for us. But, not all of them are good

Step 7: The Horn

In this step I painted two versions of the horns. Model A looks like a wild sheep horn. It looks quite good on the creature. For model B I wanted it to look like a kind of Bubalus species, a new one that can exist in the universe of Tosor, a place where nature took a different turn.

After a small time of reflection, I choose model B without any reason, just trusting my artistic instinct.

Painting two versions is always helpful to make the right choice

Painting two versions is always helpful to make the right choice

Step 8: The Hoopoe bird

I added leaves to the tree in background with leaf brushes. You can find lot of other leaves brushes on many websites like deviantart.com, or create your own custom brushes.

I adjusted Tosor's proportions and painted his head and hat properly. I painted the horn properly and adjusted the shading and texturing on them.

As you can see on the tree in the foreground, I painted a Hoopoe, a mystic bird. It has nice forms (especially his head) with long feathers on it. But, it is a small creature, so it doesn't bother the viewer. It makes the image and the whole story richer without interfering with the story of the main character, Tosor.

Adding a small character to the story is not an easy task. Try to avoid confusion and interfering with the main story

Adding a small character to the story is not an easy task. Try to avoid confusion and interfering with the main story

Step 9: Tosor

In the final step, I tried to push my work to perfection, filling all the space with different elements and respecting the lighting and the shading of the scene. For example, the mushrooms on the tree must have a sub surface scattering from the light hitting them on the right. As a 3D lighter I'm dealing with these aspects every day and I developed a kind of reflex by watching the light direction. I know how the surface should be shaded. I advise you to practice 3D also; you can get some reflexes of perception just by working in a 3D software.

The final image

The final image

Top tip: The Fibonacci sequence

The most important goal is giving equilibrium to the viewer and leading their eyes to the most important point of the image without losing him on the way. In our case, it is the character. I'm using the golden curve based on the Fibonacci sequence. It always works for me!

The Fibonacci sequence

The Fibonacci sequence

Related links

Head over to Rabie Rahou's website for more
Need Photoshop? Check out Adobe's site
Try our books on Photoshop for more useful tips

To see more by Rabie Rahou, check out Digital Art Masters: Volume 7

Fetching comments...

Post a comment