Making of 'Natsu'

I would have named this piece "How to paint an attractive Asian female in less than four hours" but it sounded lame. So here we go... the making of Natsu.

Digital painting is always fun because you don't know how things will turn out. If you've some experience, chances are you've already developed you own painting pipeline or working style. So first of all, I'm addressing this making of to the artists looking for the fresh input and some creative thoughts.

Each painting starts with an idea or feeling. While I was working on my Barbarian image (that Diablo III guy), I stumbled onto a drawing from Deviant Art (usually I turn my network connection off while working). It was of half-nude girl painted by French artist ~darax.

I liked the idea and decided to quickly sketch my own interpretation. The results were quite surprising, so I put the barbarian to one side and switched to the sketch. The next two or three hours were a total blast with me painting like mad. My primary tools were Photoshop 7.0 and Wacom Intuos 2 tablet. I started sketching on a small canvas (even for commercial work I start from low-res files) in Photoshop 7.0 because it's super fast compared to CS3. First, I filled the canvas with solid color and sketched in a new layer using a hard edge brush with varied opacity/size.

Some people prefer to work from an accurate sketch whereas I usually think in big shapes, switching as quickly as possible to light and dark masses. In reality we don't see lines - we see shapes, so from the very beginning you just mimic the reality. Just shrink your eyes and you'll see big masses of lights and darks around you. The monochrome palette helps you to concentrate on shapes and values first, without overloading your mind with color information.

Painting is a lot like playing music. There is a certain rhythm in your movements, so you have to prepare your brushes and memorize your software shortcuts so that you won't be distracted by minor tasks like changing opacity or switching tools. You can also plug in your iPod and listen to the music you like or the music that best fits the current mood.

If you're unsure about any detail(s) while painting, then create a new layer and try out your ideas. A digital workflow allows you to experiment in a non-destructive way. If something goes wrong or doesn't work, just hit undo or hide/clean the layer. And make sure you save your work in separate files. I add numbers to the filename so I can find the latest version easily. This tip also helps you to prepare a Making Of if you are asked, or desire, to do so.

Back to Natsu, the most important thing in painting females is... who said breasts?! It's the face actually! Great body features are, without a doubt, a big bonus to the character but they aren't enough. We see faces everyday and we communicate a lot, even indirectly, by eye movement or facial expressions. We're reading a lot of information by looking at each others' faces.

I worked on and refined the face until it emanated some interest on a subconscious level. It's hard to explain, but I paint until I feel some sympathy and emotional, even romantic, attachment to the female character. I then applied some local colors to the face, chest and background. I combined both hard edged brushes and soft age airbrushes, as well as layers with gradient fills (Fig.01 - Fig.05).

Fig. 01 d_Fig.

Fig. 01 d_Fig.

Fig. 02 d_Fig.

Fig. 02 d_Fig.

Fig. 03 d_Fig.

Fig. 03 d_Fig.

Fig. 04 d_Fig.

Fig. 04 d_Fig.

Fig. 05 d_Fig.

Fig. 05 d_Fig.

Since I wanted her face to be the main point of interest, I focused on her eyes, nose and lips until it felt good. I didn't paint them to the finest detail - I suggested it instead. A lot of artists paint every single wrinkle, yet the character ends up looking artificial or stiff.  Same thing counts for the hair. I didn't paint every single hair; I just worked with masses or hair. I put some little highlights here and there so her hairstyle looked alive.

I switched to CS3 and using texture brushes (Mathias Verhasselt, concept artist from Blizzard, shareda great set on conceptart.org website) quickly sketched out the environment. Again, I kept it loose since it would be out of focus anyway. I used a range of colors, from warm tones to cold tones, to create visual interest (Fig.06 & Fig.07).

Fig. 06 d_Fig.

Fig. 06 d_Fig.

Fig. 07 d_Fig.

Fig. 07 d_Fig.

To highlight some areas I created a new layer, set it to overlay mode and applied some radial gradients. I tried various colors and strengths until I got the desired result. I was looking for a dreamy, soft-glow appearance and so I put some light spots on her body and the sofa. The background was knocked down with dark colors using the same method (Fig.08).

Fig. 08 d_Fig.

Fig. 08 d_Fig.

Her legs were giving me some trouble because they didn't look right. It took me quite a while until I figured out what I needed to do. When you paint from references you won't be solving puzzles like that; you just refer to what you see. In situations like these I scan my reference library until I find something similar.

I've got a huge collection of reference photos, but most of them are the same in terms of poses and lighting. Fashion magazines tend to use the same things over and over again. I tend to draw "unreferenced-able" poses (can't find anything that looks like I need) so I have to rely on my imagination or look in my mirror. Painting from imagination only is hard because there are many real-life nuances that help to sell the image to the viewer. By using references, even indirectly, you establish visual triggers so the image looks real in someone's mind. At the same time, with painting you're often trying to create a mood, not an exact copy of the reality.

Using the pen tool I created a selection for her bikini and shaded it with some colors. Once again I didn't paint every fold or thread, I just captured the basic shapes. Think of impressionists while you paint (Fig.09).

Fig. 09 _Fig.

Fig. 09 _Fig.

At this point I realized that the left and top parts of the picture were too dark. With such a strong light, there would be reflections from the sofa and the environment would act as a secondary (indirect) light source. So I applied a few gradient layers using screen and lighten modes until I got that warm soft light around the girl (Fig.10).

Fig.10

The final image, which can be seen in the image above, tells a story. Maybe she's just come out of the shower, jumped on the sofa and is watching TV (perhaps some Naruto episodes?). Anyway there is something out of the frame that's attracting her attention. She doesn't look at you at all.

It's quite an unusual result for me. I often tend to make things look as polished as possible, but this painting is somewhere between a finished illustration and a study. The title that I decided to go with, "Natsu", means summer in Japanese (the kanji is 夏), which I think suits the image quite well.

To conclude, I hope you've enjoyed this little journey and I would be happy if it sparks some creativity or inspiration in your mind. Till the next artwork!

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