E is BACK!
You remember this bad-ass deva… she’s the featured super-star in my upcoming Character Creator Course!
Having wrapped up on the design demo – I’ve been diligently recording the comprehensive Workshops… or classes if you will… that’ll delve deep into exactly how to draw, shadow, render and detail your Female Comic Book characters. This line art illustration of E is featured in the Shading and Rendering chapter, where I explain and demonstrate my approach to rendering a variety of different materials.
The reason I included this lesson was because of how much I struggled figuring out the differences between materials such as white cloth and black leather – and how to approach rendering and shading those materials, in a Comic Art style that depicted them accurately.
I never managed to find a whole lot of info out there on it – so I figured I’d cover the topic here in the course.
As you’ve probably already gathered… there’s not a whole lot of shading and rendering happening just yet – we’re just looking at the line art here, but I wanted to just take a moment to show you what my line drawing actually looks like before I fill in all those juicy details!
For the most part, I keep it fairly simple at this stage, defining only the key contours of the drawing. The use of Line Weights add a ton to the professional quality of a drawing, even at this early stage.
So much so that you could almost call it done!
Keeping the outline of your character’s key features varied in terms of thickness and density is an often overlooked component of Comic Book Illustration that makes a world of difference in its finished presentation.
I also try to keep the line work as energetic as possible by maintaining a certain level of slick sharpness as they’re thrown down with confidence and speed.
That speed and confidence comes with practice of course – and repetition and experience is key in being comfortable enough to relax, and to NOT be too careful when it comes to the creation of your Comic Book Illustrations.
Although this Workshop/’Comic Art Class’ focuses primarily on the shadowing and rendering stage of the illustration, I still wanted to give you a glimpse into how the overall illustration came about – so I’ve also included the foundational draft to show you how it developed. At the moment I’m tearing through these Comic Art Classes and putting in a ton of time to make sure I’ve covered all the bases! So I should have a few more previews coming up real soon from some of the other lessons I’ll be packing into the course.
By the way – Yes! This volume of the Character Creator Course will focus specifically on creating female comic book characters. It’ll include the design process of E, as well as the overall Comic Art Workflow I use to pencil, ink and color + how to draw female heads, hair, bodies, arms, legs – and an in-depth look at my rendering, shading and coloring process.
If you’ve got any questions– or suggestions on what you’d like to see inside the course – send them my way. I’d love to hear from you!
Stay tuned Comic Artisans – I’ll have some more sneak peeks coming your way real soon.
-Clayton
#characterdesign #charactercreatorcourse #lineart #lineweights #e