Hi all,

The following is a concept sketch for a book cover. It was done last year. I quite like it but some aspect of the image feels wrong to me and I can't find out why. I have posted some of the concept sketches to the final linart. The character needs to look between 38 to 45 of age, mature man, strong, basic clothing and fits the environment he is living in, that is the woods. C/C welcome.

Thanks

Big arms and big feet and totally awesome. I am so jealous.. It makes me want to start gaming again. Such detail... How long does it take you to prepare a concept? Or perhaps, how long does it take to draw it? Per say, the one with the dog.. Is it all done by hand a leaf at a time? I find this incredible stuff.. Sorry about all the questions. But you know the old saying, "inquiring minds want to know".
Cyn

Lovely work Dean. How did you combine the two images? Did you draw two separate images then transfer them into one? By hand or digitally?

The technical work and sepia colour is wonderful. More, more and do tell us the process.

Wow Dean!!! Spectacular!!! I love it. Keep up the good work.

Hey Dean,
Wonderful work again, please stick around, we all love the work you are doing.
That being said, you asked for some feedback. While I prob couldnt draw a realistic person to save my world (I stick to animals, buildings and landscapes), I do have experience with other cartoonists and fantasy artists, and I was a bodybuilder during my younger years (sigh), therefore please take my observations with grace...
In the first concept, his arm mass doesnt match his torso mass. With that type of arm structure, his torso should be more massive. I take it you are trying to portray realism in a fantasy realm. Whereas comic art allows for the bloated appearance of muscle vs. body structure, fantasy art is typically not based that way. I find those artists attempt sincere realism (except for the obvious deviation, such as elf ears for example). IF you are indeed attempting to portray RH, then he would have certainly used a larger bow. I think that the yew bow was, at times, as tall as a man. (And he would need considerable upper body strength to pull back the bowstring) Correct me if I am wrong. http://www.primitiveways.com/Otzi's_bow.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow

Now I must giggle(in a manly way of course) about your landscaping. It is absolutely incredible!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!! I would possibly bring him and the dog a bit more to the background, to allow for the forest to be quite foreboding, while hiding him a little bit (he is a hunter afterall)

After all said and done dean, I truly love your work, and its you that has to be happy with the outcome. I cant wait to see what you show us next!!!!!

Cheers.

It must be my browser settings or something but all I see are the words, IPB Image for each of the pictures you've posted. Weird. Is there something I should change to be able to see the pics? I use the Firefox browser.

J

Hey there J,
Unsure what you need to change in Firefox, as I dont use it, however here are the links for the pics in order...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v728/dean080580/man.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v728/dean080580/JON2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v728/dea...0/bacground.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v728/dea...0/viewphoto.jpg

Cheers.

Thanks, Horse, it was a setting in my browser - I had to enable images from other than the originating website.

Very, very nice! His feet & hands do look somewhat oversized compared to the rest of his body but everything is meticulously detailed! This must have taken you forever to draw! Love the sepia tone too. I'm so glad you're sharing with us.

J

beautiful work dean ...is this for a D and D cover to a book ? do you play D and D ?
and I think the drawing is perfect and it reminded me of a char in my game

Hi Cyn, thanks for the comments, The time for a concept actually depends on what I am asked to draw. But usually it should not be more than three days on average. That is one day for the research, the other one for the pencilling and inking and the last day for the coloring.

But as I said it all depends on the amount of work that is required. This one (with the dog) took me 4 days on/off during my free time. I got some good references for this one and it helped a lot with the landscape, hunter and dog. The leaves were all drawn one by one. It does sound a bit crazy but when you start drawing it over and over again you can do it very quickly after some time. I will say that the biggest help was proper references.



I am always really happy when I see you replying to one of my threads because I love all your work and one of my fav is the guy with the cap that you use coloured pencil for the colouring. Your style remind me a lot of my art teacher. The three images (hunter, dog, landscape) was drawn seperately. The following is a brief of the process.

1. Scanning the completed (inked) drawing at 300 dpi grayscale. Or you can just scan it at 300 dpi on RGB and turn it to greyscale on photoshop.

2. Adjusting the white and black on photoshop with the curves tool turning it to pure black (0,0,0) in terms of RGB and pure white (255, 255, 255). Some prefer levels but I find curve to have unlimited controls over the dark tone, middle tone and light tone. It also decreases the noises a lot on the drawing and makes the linework sharper. Stamp tool was used for eliminating the strong noises. If you need more help on the use of curve just le me know and I post a more detailed explanation of the process.

3. I used the pen tool to select the hunter and dog because they are complex shapes to select as it has got some really diffilcult curves and this is where the use of pen tool is crucial. When using pen tool the less point you use to select a shape the better the edges of the selection will be.

4. I then cut both the hunter and the dog on Photoshop and placed then on the landscape. This method allows you more control because I can resize the hunter and the dog and place then where I want.

5. The I flatenned the layer and used the Hue/Saturation for the sepia colors. To get this colors you just tick the colorize option, the Hue = 22 saturation = 37Lightness = -20

This method of drawing it seperatly allow a lot of controls over different element of the image but it has got drawbacks when you are working with an image wich has a complex perspective because you need to get the perspective right on all the seperated elements. In that case I use tracing paper and It works really well.

Hope this has been helpful to you. If there is anything that you want more explanation, I will try to put to images there for a better understanding of the process.

By the way, I love your avatar.




Thanks Venus.




Thanks a loooooot for that horsewhisperer. You just solved my problem and I did not expect less from you. you are absolutely right for the arms, bow and bringing him and the dog to the background. Some aspect of a character can be exagereted if it is in a comic style but it has to be believable. The arm of the hunter is not fitting the overall anatomy and it makes it look strange. If only I got those link for the bow in the first place. Thanks for that.

I am really impressed with those comments and I will try to rectify those problems.

For how long are you in the artistic field by the way?





Thanks for the comment Lynn. You are right about the anatomy. Every comment that horsewhisperer gave has been really helpful to me. It took me 4 days to do that. I love the sepia colors too and will be posting some more soon.




Thanks for the comments kim. I did this for a freelance work for an indivual (Gabe Dennick) who wanted me to do the cover of his book. I never played D and D but what type of game is that by the way?
Thanks again for the comments.

Hey there Dean,

Glad I was able to help. I certainly hope none of my comments came off as too strong for anyone, and I know I can use all the C&C I can get. I have been drawing on and off since I was 3 years old. I left it during my teen years due to a nasty art teacher (shivers), only to come back to it during my late teen years when I was studying to become a draftsperson.

Feel free to PM me, or contact me via Yahoo Messenger if you have any questions, as I am on most times. I would LOVE to talk art with you!! By the by, D&D is Dungeons and Dragons, the coolest early role playing game besides Capture the Flag. There is nothing like the pleasure of rolling a 20 sided die.

Cheers.

She is right D&D is Dungeons and Dragons.....and I have only played for about 8 months now and I do it online .. but it is very fun ... the DM (Dungeon master) who controls the game is very creadtive and a wonderful story teller .. lots of detail ....i dont really care to roll the die because we use a online die roller and well it sucks lol .

LOL, hey there Kim, Im a stallion, not a mare.

Cheers.