Walkthrough: Leonardo and Ezio

I was recently commissioned to draw Leonardo da Vinci and Ezio Auditore da Firenze of Assassin's Creed II by a friend. I've never played this game but it being mainstream and a favorite of some of the artists I follow, I more or less know what's going on. Won't stop me from actually getting the game though!

Here's the process for this commission.

The commissioner was very kind to give me information on these two characters and a basic idea of what she wanted. Working with those, I make a basic sketch.

I let that sit for a night while I get some shut eye. In the morning, with fresh eyes, I review the image and decide it's lacking interaction. Where are their other arms? So I set off and make a sketch based on the first.

Awful chicken scratch in the corner is mine. I wanted something more romantic, so I had them interacting more. Here I also sketch in an idea for their facial expressions. There's something not sitting right with me though. I've decided Ezio would be hugged by Leonardo, but his left arm kind of obscures Leonardo's face. Not to mention closes off the composition too much.

 I make a new layer and adjust things a little. There, that's better. This way we can see Leonardo's face. 

I look at a lot of their reference pictures. I even look at dozens of the game videos. Also, around here I notice that Ezio has very Italian features that a lot of artists don't draw. A low brow ridge for instance, thick eyebrows. A strong nose. I decide to bring these out in the sketch. I start getting an idea for their clothes as well. It's a mess right now.

I block in a few things to get a better idea of how they flow. Well, that looks pretty much correct. Let's get started with inking!

As always, I start inking on the face. I discover I may have drawn Leonardo's head  too small. Oh dear. 

Time for me to adjust Leonardo's head just slightly. There. That looks better. I ink in their hands next. And start seeing all sorts of anatomical errors. YIKES. None of my sketches are 100% fool proof, traditionally or digitally. Mistakes just crop up when I start getting serious. Around here, a friend lets me know I drew their hands too small. ;A;

 Hands corrected! And the rest of the ink is magically done?! No, no, I spend an hour or so fixing that. I also start detailing here.

Adjusted Leonardo's face and hat because it kept bugging me.

I start laying down my base colors. A lot of them I referenced off in-game stills, while others I pick up from other artists' renditions of them. I gave Ezio a more olive complexion than Leonardo.  

I had to stop for a moment to broaden Leonardo's jaw and chin to lessen how girly he looked.

There's all the colors. As you can see, I started detailing the cuffs of Ezio's shirt. I can't find very good references for them so I had to improvise. 

Leonardo's tunic looked a little too washed out, so I darkened it. I started detailing his tunic as well.

More detailing! My eyes are starting to bleed at this point. 

 MORE DETAILING. Although, not gonna lie, I had a lot of fun doing those leaves.

 Ezio's vest was a bitch to detail! It was a very complicated pattern I couldn't make sense of so I partially improvised. Think of it as paisley's cooler cousin. None of those prints were textures; I hand drew them myself.

 Time to get coloring! I did Ezio's eyes first, to get a feel of the piece. Then his skin. I almost always start at the face.

 Don't mind that crude sun, it's just a light source guide for me. Kept refining the colors on his face and his hands until they looked right before I started painting his shirt. 

 Not wanting to lose the detailing in his vest, I had to duplicate it, setting one layer to Screen, the other to Luminosity. The patterns were saved from the deep dark shadows of his vest. Painted other things as well, his arm accessories and his leg.

His hair was particularly challenging in this one. I wanted to show the texture of his hair so I switched to an Oil Brush to get that quality I wanted. 

 Leonardo's turn. His face is slightly more interesting, considering we've got to contend with his hat. 

I darkened the shadows on his face a little.

Rinse, repeat the same process I employed on Ezio. Here's the finished image, with the folds on the tunic just like I wanted. 

Process: A Wedding In Sunset

I recently completed a commission that certainly pushed me to my limits. It was a great experience, because I managed to see for myself that I really have improved and it's kind of amazing to look at all these WIP shots and go like WHOA, I DID THAT.

I'll be posting my progress throughout the project, and give you a little idea of how I do it. There's no one way to draw things, and my way certainly isn't the right way. I found that certain things worked for me, and so they're what I go with most of the time.

This picture is of Clyetes Arkanum and Nikolas Drake from CrimsonKiss89's novel in progress, Crimson Kiss.

I usually start with laying a neutral color down and using something bright and obnoxious to draw in my framework. I've got the commissioner's details sitting open on my desktop, so I can keep referring to that as I figure out what to do. It's usually at this stage I send the first sketch to the commissioner, asking if they're okay with the pose. Once I get their approval, I continue.

The commissioner gives me the okay and so I lower the opacity on the framework layer and create a new layer. On this one, I do the very basic sketch of the characters. Draw in their features, their clothes, and get the feeling of how the piece is supposed to go. This is one of my more complicated commissions, because it involves two people, so I send another sketch to the commissioner and ask for their approval. YES, it is a go sign! On to the next step.

I realize that the subjects are way too far to the left and move them. This is where I make another layer (man, I have so many of them!) and start inking. I use Paint Tool SAI, and I found that the Ink Pen tool works best with my lineart. They give it a crisp and neat look. 

Inking inking inking. I've turned down my sketch layer down to maybe 5% or so.

There we go. That's the lineart right there. I take some time to make my lines heavy in some places but generally keep the lineart neat and light. As you can see, several tiny things have changed from the initial sketch.

I check my notes again and find that one of the subjects has scales along his jaw, his neck and dusting a bit of his shoulder. They're aquamarine, so I don't bother inking them in black. I use a light blue to get an idea of where they should be. 

The scene is to take place during sunset. I was a little anxious when I learned of that detail, not because I didn't want to do it but because I hadn't done it before. But hey, no harm in trying! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you don't like the idea of doing something out of your league (but not something you intensely dislike), don't bother opening commissions. I decide to paint the sky first, because the couple is out in the open, under the sky and the sun and their colors will be greatly affected by it. I look up several sunset photos and decide on a heavily orange, yellow and purple look. It will go great with the couple's own colors. I use a custom brush, which is textured, and layer the colors and blend until they look right.

Thus satisfied, I start filling in the couples' basic colors.

Around here, I realize I didn't like the red lipstick so I switched it out for a blue-green to match his scales.

The important thing to remember when painting is that the human skin absorbs color. Well, okay, so maybe these two aren't human, but you get the point. Skin absorbs the color of whatever's around it. In this case, our tall, dark and humongous will be absorbing purple from the sky. I shape up his features by starting with a darker brown than his base, making sure that he doesn't look flat. I then apply my purple in the places I want it. Don't worry if it looks weird; I usually take my dark brown again and blend the purple in.

Now I went and added the yellow. As you can see, they really help bring out those amazing cheek bones of his.

I flesh him out some more by adding more purple and brown. Yes, I also colored the skin under his gauzy sleeves. That skin may be mostly covered, but taking the extra effort to color it will make a far better effect. Trust  me on this one. I also started doing his hair, basically by running a dark red through it to map how his hair falls. Hair is impossible to do accurately because hair is composed of thousands of strands. I color it by clumps instead.

I now add my highlights to that hair. What is your shampoo, tall dark and humongous?

Then I do his shirt. I apply the same practice of taking purple and yellow from the background. I set down some grays for the shadows on his shirt and then blend in the two main colors. I also colored the gauzy sleeves!

I hid Mr. Beautiful's make up because at this point, I want to start from scratch. I have to begin with the most basic thing, that would be to color Nikolas' skin. For someone with fair skin, color is absorbed more. Depending on their race, the skin tends to absorb a certain color more. In Nikolas' case, he's fair and a little pink, so he'll soak the purples right up. I get the feeling I may have been thinking of Cillian Murphy's face when I was painting Nikolas'.

With the help of a good friend, I was able to get the make up I wanted. Since I'm building on color from Nikolas' scales, I really incorporated greens and blues into his make up. Like applying real make up, I started with a green base for his eyeshadow. I then took blue and very gently blended it into the green, and as a final touch, did a bit of greyish white in just the right places. I made his lipstick extra glossy as well for extra fabulous.

There you go! I hope you enjoyed seeing my process and learned something from this huge wall of text. :D