By: Ron Leary Jr
Step by Step on how I created my Tomb Raider Reborn image
First stage: I sketch a few thumbnails first. Then I review them, pick which is working best for me.
Then I create the rough illustration for my underpainting.
My next stage revolves around laying down grey tones. For this project I started with flesh tones and worked my way out.
At this point I'm less excited about the candles and the skulls. The skulls are too interesting and the lighting is going to draw attention to the base of the image. They need to go. Lara needs to be the focus. Yes, that Axe is not accurate yet. I'll fix it when I get there. ;-D
Covering up those skulls and adjusting the image. I don't go back to penciling at this point. I go right over the image. I shape out the edge of my shilouette and line in some details.
Interesting how the skulls are doing the drawing for me. ;-D
Oh yeah, this is working much better. She still needs some tweaking and I need to focus on her now. SO let's cut her out from the background and give her all the attention.
Shaping and adjusting until it feels right. Pretty straight forward at this point.
More tooling and detailing. Created a couple texture brushes I'm going to use for stains and wood.
Start on the backarm. Bandages and hands. That Pick Axe is bothering me now. So I'm going to attack it by pulling up some references on what this thing looks like. I need clear shots of it, I'm not looking for the same angle image. I want to know how this thing works. From there I can make it up close enough to feel real. I'll redraw and tone my axe right on my Lara image.
Pick axe and some more details throughout.
Pick axe is looking good. Everything is coming together.
Bow and arrow time.
Hair and details to pull her together.
Adjusting the contrast in the image for lighting direction. I'm happy now. Need to pull in the background and get cranking.
I'm feeling a little like Darth Vader from Empire now. "all too easy". Actually. I did a lot and it's mostly perservence to get through the repetitive aspect of this stage. The water is a gradient with motion blurred strokes. The edge frame is from a combination of the textures I made earlier. But I know there are things that I need to go back to with a strong reference.
Now I go in and make more detailed tweaks. Using solid refrences increases the realism. Hard part is to hold back and not go crazy making it too photo realistic. I like the rough medium feel I have going on and I want to keep it not over work it and make the whole thing stiff and dead.
Final Image.
