[Gecko]

I just finished this an hour ago, and wasn't planning to do a how to beforehand, so the steps I got are not the best possible.
There's no real story behind it, I just sketched a bunch of animal scenes. I read some of the old walk-throughs on my page and wanted to do another one of a recent painting, sijun should have more of these and I haven't seen many in a long while.




So, step number one: scanned pencil sketch of an owl and some other birds gathered around a tray of fruits. This layer set on multiply with a normal layer beneath it (in photoshop) we go to step 2.

step2: block in colors and basic form + values with transparent pencil lines on top. the idea was to have a rather dark setting where the fruits and little birds get attention with light hitting them. Bright background and spotlight on the owl = going wrong from the very start. Anyway, at that time I thought I was doing OK and hid the pencil layer not needing it anymore.

step3: Resizing the image from 800 to around 3000 pixels wide. I somehow came to my senses and darkened all the stupid bright parts, and started to work out on the texture for the owl. This included some monochromatic noise, overlay and multiply layers, paint. I merge down layers as I go, so lots of the detail that went to the owl had to be repainted because I did the background afterwards. that sucked.

step4: I grow tired of not having enough random texture on the pic, so I go find some of my scanned oil paintings and throw them in as a background (you can see the white borders glow through). I use a color layer to color them green. Still no enough texture, I go around with all kinds of custom brushes I happen to have from scratchy lines to groups of dots and blast away. I should've done this right from the start and I would've saved a few hours of struggle. I add the tree trunks in, shape some leafy bushes here and there and connect them with branches, just a little darker value than leaves. Owl's wings look too long, make 'em too short instead.

step5: Since there is not going to be a bunch of little birds around, the owl looks stupid with one wing going down and the other one up. This changes, practically no work: just sharp edges on the silhouette and done. Silhouette of another bird appears to top left corner and I color it having it lassoed to keep the edges hard. I Go around covering all recognizable parts of oil paintings and melt some edges together, sharpen others. Polishing anything that strikes my eye. This includes the fruits, I just didn't have any work in progress shots of them.

step6: A frog. There was supposed to be a crow sitting under the owl's wing. I dug up a sketch of a frog, inverted it and put the layer blending mode on overlay (i think) to get the lines to show and be able to paint underneath. This is the final touch, I consider it finished and go off to post on sijun.

100% detail shots of the finished thing:





I remember these kind of mini tutorials helping me a lot (especially full size shots) so help each other out, show some of them along with your finished stuff.

I might not be able to answer any questions until next weekend, but fire away if anything boggles your mind.

..i hope i didn't forget anything major.

[Sumaleth]

Holy geckomoly! Great pic, good to see all that sketch work is paying off on a real image now.

Row.

[Bilbo]

Beatiful.. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[Zorglub]

That is friggin brilliant! I cannot believe how much it looks like a traditional medium. Awesome job man!

[notic]

very well done. always fun to see how artists like you work

[jesusclone]

wooooow..... uh yeah what notic said

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http://www.twigpeople.com/dmo

[jasonN]

Great work henrik and Gecko! I love how your image seems so chaotic and detailed, yet those crisp edges shine through and give awesome clarity.

[The Duke]

Dear god henrik! Umm how long did it take you to do that 'speed painting'?

[Mr. T]

okay, i'll contribute too, then
not as good as the previous two, but...

the process

this was posted in speed painting thread too

[Icannon]

incredible job, gecko! i love it (i love owls, too) .. perfect.

[henrik]

Nice image Gecko! Imho i think you lost some of the depth in your later progression. I actually like image no 3 more, where you separate background and foreground elements.
Keep up the good work!

My contribution:
(Quickie posted in the Speed Painting thread)


http://henrik.cgcommunity.com/temp/knight_images.jpg

Det var d� sj�lva j�velen vad sv�rt det ska vara att skriva en enda satans radj�vel r�tt!

Step by step, but no comments. Everything is straight forward "drawing", without any layers, effects or other fancy stuff. Enjoy.
EDIT: I spell like I look.

[ March 31, 2002: Message edited by: henrik ]

[Mr. T]

kickass

thanks for sharing your technique, it's very educational

[henrik]

The Duke> Maybe 30 min.

[pixelsoldier]

My god, this is astonishing...

Thank you very, very much for taking the time to show the steps involved. I for one appreciate it a great deal.

I really look forward to seeing more of your latest stuff man.

Are you still serving in the military? When are they gonna set you free to paint more?

[Alan]

Nice pic. Although i kinda agree with henrik, i think i like step 3 a little better than the final...

-Alan

[DarkVVulf]

Excellent, I always enjoy studying how you people work.

[Radiater]

Thanks for posting this Gecko! Your creative process and the result are fantastic. I have to agree with Henrik though, in step 3 the background values etc. seemed to suit the pic more. The shortened wing, however, of your final pic looks more real.

[Socar MYLES]

I always look forward to your posts, Gecko--your style has really developed recently, and I'm loving it more than ever. The texture in this is very inviting, and the owl is cute as hell. Great stuff!

[Lunatique]

Very nice! It's kinda cool to see how over time, learning from each other has helped artists develop new progressions and interesting twists. This is what sijun is all about!