Following the line drawing and taking a look at how to create a cloak I ended up doing something unusual for me. Just painting the thing on and not drawing it all out nice and carefully. Unusual for me but quite relaxing even if I do shrink from the lack of accuracy.
I had had some comments the his goggles of night looked a little to much light modern night vision goggles so I tried to add more curve to the lenses rather than them being flat.
To try and maintain the Chinese feel of the characters homeland I added a traditional Chinese pattern to the but of the gun and the flintlock mechanism. Importantly I chose one that was flowery and organic as I felt with Shedinns gardening background he would appreciate this aesthetic.
For the final image I realised that the lighting was really very boring and with nothing in the background the character, especially use to his simplistic pose, was rather dull. To this end I tried to add a cooler light source on the right and a warm light on the left. I’m still not sure I have lit him in all of the right places, but as my first proper digital painting in two years I think it turned out rather well.
Work for the future?
If I were to take the time to continue this image I would like to try and improve the texture on the gardening apron. The backpack is currently flat a featureless. Though an artificer would have all sorts of junk on there I still think a thief would keep it tightly packed and covered to avoid noise, but despite this it still doesn’t stand out very much as a feature at the moment.
The last thing is that I failed to make much use of his pockets. In the original sketch he had all sorts of things filling those up and he looses something by not having them. Not only that but he needs a little bit of something to make him look more green thumbed. Perhaps a plant or something hanging out the top of the pocket that he is saving to study or pot latter?
I’d also like to draw him more without the hood. I’ve had one very quick go and just drawing him without his helm and posing him slightly differently, but an image with him in a more dynamic pose and with his mechanical peacock in tow would make for a much more interesting image.
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