Eruption of the Old Kingdom
Free Art Files to Celebrate My New Book
Spirit Falls
Good evening everyone!
Spirit Falls is my latest concept piece that I have developed tonight for your viewing enjoyment. What do you see moving through the waterfall? Ghosts? Spirits? Magical energy? These all are components for the theme that I followed so you are all correct.
This piece took me four hours to put together from start to finish. As usual, I started with a saved template that I use to build my digital artwork. It is a grey matted “paper” that I use for all of my images. I find that it is much easier on the eyes than when I start with all white. My screen tends to get a bit bright as well so the grey background helps a lot…also nice for helping me to measure my highlights and shadows. The template I use is 2894 × 2039 pixels.
I found a generic photo of a waterfall that I embedded into the piece and then blurred over a dark lavender fill. I blew it up to twice it’s size so that only the texture of the water shows through. I then removed just the fill that I needed so that the waterfall would show through. This manipulation of generic photos saved me some time.
I created a new layer and penciled in the warrior. I drew him much larger so that I could get the pose the way I wanted. As a side note, I don’t use any programs like poser or anything else that would generate a 3D model. This will probably change in the future as I do like to save time. I think the freehand pose gives it more freedom of movement.
I then used an ink wash to color the body and clothing. I can blend and build color very fast with the inking tool. I have always loved ink both digital and contemporary. Using my air brush tool, I placed shadows, highlights, and details in the skin where I thought it was necessary.
After all this was complete, I then shrunk the figure down and placed him in the foreground. With a little blending I was able to make him part of his surroundings…especially the ground.
Lastly I added one more layer for the ghostly movements you see starting up top and moving toward the bottom left…..or do they start bottom left and move up? Due to the lack of signs to tell them otherwise, I’m sure the spirits made up their own minds.
I hope you enjoy and happy blogging!
Ghostly Orb Forest
Ever walk into a forest and see ghostly orbs fly around you? This is what it might look like if you do. I imagine a lot of activity all at once as if an energy burst is suddenly being released until finally pulsating out of existence.
This piece was designed in black and white to create a spooky mood accentuating the darkness and shadow of the night. The orbs are a bright contrasting white so they are able to communicate their presence, movement, and let everyone know they are there.
This piece was designed using Clip Studio Paint and consists of four layers. The initial pencil layer was later converted to detail layer toward the end of completing the piece. The other layers are an ink layer, background layer, and shadows layer.
To create a more 3 dimensional appearance, elements of shadows and highlights were placed throughout all of the layers with a proper amount of blending where needed to fuse the elements together.
The trees were created with a thick inking brush with fine detailing afterward. A tree texture tool was used to give more of a bark look to the skin of the tree. This also allows for more interesting shadows as they were placed with an air brush tool.
The bushes in the foreground were created with an ink wash set to a grey tone much like taking a sponge to a piece of paper with ink. Just enough texture to provide the look of bushes without much more but it helps to frame the piece together.
In the background I placed a slow moving mist moving throughout the trees again to provide some more depth and make it seem as though the orbs were traveling through the woods.
The far background has a number of different tree and grass designs making it seem dark and very difficult to find your way through.
Hope you enjoy this piece…be sure not to get lost should you enter the woods alone and unafraid.