Cover Art 02

Here's a look at a cover I'm working on  after an artist @moxham_ on instagram. The impression I got from his character design sketch was a strong  centaur warrior with an armored head, a spear, and sword.

Step 01 Design Sketch:  I decided to do a front view and concentrate on changing the proportions. I maintained the focus on the armored head.

Design Critique: After the design was completed, I thought it would have been better to do a three quarter view in order to show the back legs better. I didn't choose the best view for the design. I will have to make more thumbnails in the beginning so I don't do this again.

Step 02 Design Clean up: After the sketch of the design was finished I made adjustments to fix perspective, gesture and anatomy. Also the design needs to be simplified.  I used colored lines so that I could see my changes easily.

Design Critique: There are still problems I was not able to see during this stage with anatomy. I should have used reference when making corrections. It will end up helping me in the end because I won't run into rendering problems.

Step 03 Create 50% mask: I make a new layer set to multiply mode and fill the character with 50% grey. This allows me to render from a middle value outward to black and to white. It also helps to keep the contour from changing as everything outside the lines are masked away.

Step 04 Create 3 masks for basic rendering: I create one mask for the shadows, lights and, rim lights.
Masking is a wonderful way of keeping a process simple so that big changes are easy. For example, in this video, I am able to toggle an under lit or top lit situation just be inverting the mask. It was originally painted as under lit but I decided to invert. I didn't have to repaint it! Time saved.

Step 05: Polish: This stage is currently still in the works. I apply my understanding of light and anatomy, working slowly to render each form within the hierarchy of focus. Basically, the chest area is the focus for the light. I wanted the head to be dark and mysterious so the contour could stand out. the back legs are finally added.

Step 6 Finish: This stage is currently under construction. Please return later to see how this ends!