Electro - Character Concept Piece for Splinter Lands Competition Week 105

Hi everyone, sharing with you today my concept character art piece & process for the splinterlands week 105 competition.

I call this character electro because as you can clearly see he can harness the power of electricity on his victims. I was after a simplistic cartoon style as the competition states it must be in the style of splinter lands characters. I will share the whole process below...

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Step 1

First I begin with a quick gesture study of the character. I have one or two lines to repesent the overarching movement in his pose and then form more of the body shape after this.

Step 2

I lower the layer opacity and over on a new layer I draw a new outline but more detailed than before. I hide the previous layer when complete.

Step 3

Next, I add the base colours for the piece. I went for a dark blue hoody, with a light brown shirt and light blue t-shirt underneath, dark brown trousers and light brown shoes. I didn't want the sky completely dark so I made it a dark purple hue for now.

Step 4

Using a multiply mode on a new layer I create darker tones on all the colours in the piece. This will add form to the piece because there should never be flat colours unless that is the style you are aiming for. If an object has a 3 dimensional form then when light touches it, it will have various tones. This is what hints to the viewer what shape the object is.

Step 5

Similar to the previous step I add an overlay layer to the piece. This will be for all the brightest tones in the piece.

Step 6

I add some electricity source to show his powers. I also add it to his eyes in much smaller amounts.

Step 7

This will also generate light so under a new layer and colour mode I add hints of blue for where the light would touch the scene. I also add some details to the background like the moon and bats flying in the distance.

Final Step

The final step involved flattening the image and creating some lighting effects. I added a sparkle effect on the electricity in his hands and eyes. It is a subtle effect but makes the electricity seem more powerful.

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Hope you liked this piece and thank you for all of your support!

@iansart

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