ESRC Poster Process

Here’s some process shots for the ESRC poster from concept to creation.

- Sketch: Here I wanted a tight, compact, movie poster style conceptual composition that highlighted the core of the ESRC program; pride, teamwork, the corp signature Astero, tumbling rescue cans, the beloved AI co-pillot ALLISON and framed by a circular wormhole effect with the EVE-Scout Rescue logo hidden among the stars.

BTW, the Signaleers shown are not meant to represent anyone in particular but, for those of you who know the EVE community, I did base the look of the female Signaleer on CCP Punkturis, a developer on the game ;)

- Color Rough: Here it’s just about laying in rough color to establish tone and balanced color so I have a color roadmap to reference before I start the final rendering. Some small changes can be spotted in the final but for the most part, the rough reflects the final image quite closely.

- Final Painting: The final image all painted up pretty! Speed lines, color effects and other post processing is added after rendering including some nice suggestions during the revision process.

ESRC Poster

Process Peeks

Here are some WIPs for the ‘Marius’ painting. From left to right - raw sketch, gray render, color key and final painting.

Sketch: What I wanted to capture was a teenage wizard who thinks of himself as a powerful wizard, hence the oversized, ill-fitting clothes. He makes gold as a stagehand for a traveling troupe of actors and minstrels, providing environmental effects like dancing lights, ice, snow, fire and wind to enhance their performances. So I avoided visually comparing him to the performers and tried to surround him with the show’s laborers. He’s strictly a ‘behind the curtain’ guy ;)

Gray Render: This is the next step after I have a sketch composition I’m happy with. I grab the brushes and start painting in pure black and white value. This prevents me from getting bogged down in color concerns too early and I can focus solely on contrast and brightness. The gray stage gets me about 95% of the way to the final rendering but you can see some small differences between this and the final painting, such as the sign painters bucket and clothing splatters as well as the troupe’s sign in the back. I also originally planned for an actual dull prop sword on the back table but decided I liked the idea of a harmless wooden stage sword better. 

Color Key: This is my last step before final color and rendering. I lay out the image in flat color so I have a roadmap for balancing the final tones. I then separate every layer and label them in a folder so I have some quick and easy shapes for masking. 

Final Painting: This is where it all comes together. Color layers are added, adjusted, massaged and sometimes repainted from scratch. For any rework’s at this stage, I just paint in color to save time from going back through the entire process again. After the color rendering is done, one last round of cleanup and balancing is done before any post processing touches are added. These normally include glow’s and other lighting effects. 

“Marius the Magnificent”

A D&D character portrait of a young wizard using his budding arcane powers to enhance the performances of a troupe of traveling actors and minstrels. 

“Goblin Cutpurse”

Bubo MK2 Design Sketch

Design sketch for my D&D character's mechanical owl, Bubo, inspired by the original classic 1981 fantasy film, Clash of the Titans, designed by Ray Harryhausen. 

PoE Character Portrait

“Zomb-Eagle”

Hubbard Portrait

Close-up of the (mostly) final face of Master Kuvakei.  

WIP for the Mind Flayer portrait. 

The final turned out really nice but if I had it to do over again, I would have changed his tentacle orientation from a middle elephant snout thing to two equally spaced front and back. 

Final sketch layout and composition for the Skylark painting.