Concept art

Composition and Concept Art.

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OdeMoncat

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Character Design and Splash Art.

Here I will briefly show you some of the processes I carry out to create a character and make a splash art. This example I'm using was for the contest held by Clip Studio with the theme of GalaxysCutest. I found it interesting to show you the process I followed to finish this splash art.

Initial Thumbnails.

The first thing I do to create a character is to create thumbnails (miniatures) of my character, analyzing the silhouette and shapes generated by a black smudge. I make as many as I deem necessary, from 5 to 20, depending on the individual. For this, I try to make the silhouette clear and recognizable. Why? Well, if our character is in a crowd or an environment, it will be easier for us to recognize them despite so many elements/noise in our composition. So, we'll ensure it's a recognizable silhouette, where we have very descriptive elements of the character, and that these elements are understood solely by a black silhouette, whether they are objects or clothing/fabrics, etc.

Thumbnail Selection.

Now we have to choose the thumbnail we liked the most. If we have elements from other silhouettes that we liked, we can add them to our selected silhouette by cutting them from the figure we liked best and pasting them onto our silhouette, or we can also redraw them by hand. We can also add details in other gray tones to create interesting clothing. I added some elements I liked from the other silhouettes to the selected thumbnail and detailed them in lighter tones.

Adding Details.

To work on the silhouette, we can use the "Lock transparent pixels" tool to work more comfortably without going outside the silhouette.

Outfit Design.

I made more thumbnails because I didn't like the first outfit. I created several and modified the silhouette with a yellow frame. The blue thumbnail was the result of further modifying the previous thumbnail.

Color Palette for Our Character.

I created a layer on top of my character with 1. "Blending Mode" > "Color" to add color to our character and see which color combination is most harmonious and suitable for our character. I also used the 2. "Clip to Layer Below" tool so that the color wouldn't go outside my character.

Thumbnails for Splash Art

With our character designed and color palette ready, we will create more thumbnails to arrange the composition of our work and the placement of the elements in our painting. For this type of illustration, I used the rule of thirds combined with other composition types. With these thumbnails, we will also decide which one we like best and how we will arrange our composition.

I selected the yellow thumbnail because I could apply a more interesting composition and make better use of the rule of thirds.

How to Guide a Viewer's Gaze?

One method to guide a viewer's gaze is using the rule of thirds. How is this done? The intersecting lines in the rule of thirds grid are where you will place your points of attention. In your composition, they don't have to be exactly at the intersection of the lines; it's just an approximation of your point of interest.\n\nLighting: This also greatly helps us focus attention and convey certain emotions to the viewer. If you place a point of interest in the light, you can cause attention to be drawn to that light.\n\nPlanes in your composition: The use of planes helps us create depth in our composition (planes are elements that overlap one another, a plane is like Clip Studio layers). For example; we have some plants very close to the viewer, being in front of all the layers creates a proximity plane, generating a bit more depth. Another plane is the character, the tree is another, etc.\n\nBlurring can also direct our attention to the sharpest/most focused area, which can also create a sense of movement.\n\n\nA character's gaze can also help us direct a viewer's attention. For example, the piece I used for these tips; the hologram, the protagonist, and the alien in the background are looking in the direction the protagonist is pointing, causing your gaze to move towards their hand, which can make you see the end of the tunnel in the background. Using a character pointing in a direction also gives us the sensation of looking at what the protagonist is seeing.\n\nVanishing point: This is one of the most used resources to guide the gaze. This method is almost self-explanatory; all lines converging at a vanishing point make the viewer look towards that point.

Adding Color to a Thumbnail

Once we have chosen our thumbnail, we will scale it to the size and resolution at which we will work on our canvas.

When we have the thumbnail scaled, we can make modifications to our character's pose, modify the landscape, and adjust elements that we didn't like from the beginning. It's still a rough sketch in grayscale, so at this point, we don't yet have a high level of detail and can modify it more comfortably. Once we are satisfied with the sketch or have finished detailing it, we can proceed by adding a base color to our canvas.

To add color to our thumbnail, we will go to the Edit/Tonal Correction(D)/Color Balance... tab.

In the new pop-up window that appeared, we can add color to our canvas with the sliders. In the 'Color Level' section, we have the following options: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue. We will choose the color that predominates in our composition.

Now we can continue with the painting. Additionally, we can cut out our character or desired elements with the selection tool, paste them onto different layers, fill the cut spaces with more paint, and continue with the background. You can also create a new layer with the Blending Mode (Color) and color other elements that have different colors or paint the character's colors.

At this point, I will omit the details of the entire process I follow to finish a painting because this explanation could become too long. This tip is more focused on character design and composition for splash art.