'The Guide'—the final version with adjustments to tonal values and transparency to add as much depth as possible to what is a fairly complex tableaux.
All the elements are now in place, but the relationships between many of them are still a bit awkward, both tonally and in terms of scale—the doe to the right of the sun dial being a perfect example.
Affinity Designer is my software of choice. Affinity Designer neatly encapsulates the best of Illustrator and Photoshop in the same program and is a delight to use—it is really responsive and powerful and you can see a lot of your effects occuring in real time. Here you can see the Affinity Designer workspace as I work in my shapes and colours for 'The Guide'.
Very simple shapes being used to create the environment through which these characters are moving. Limited colour palette to create a feeling of late afternoon sunshine and deep shadow to help convey a sense of mystery and nostalgia.
The original sketch has been opened up in Affinity Designer and with a semi opaque layer acting as a virtual sheet of tracing paper, I am working up the elements in vector line using Affinity Designer's pen tool.
The working drawing for 'The Guide' which I created in Manga Studio 5 EX. THe brush tools in Manga are very responsive and ideal for drawing out ideas quickly with plenty of scope for alteration and experimentation.
