Hi everyone, this is a tutorial on how I created my latest sci-fi artwork. You’ll see how I create my basic concept, my step by step drawing process, and some of the most useful tools and techniques I use when making my sci-fi design.

 

I’ve kept this tutorial as easy to understand as possible. Everyone will feel comfortable following along while working on their own sci-fi scenes!

Creating my Sci-Fi Character Design.

Sci-fi scenes are fun because they are whimsical, futuristic, and creative. When creating my sci-fi concepts, I start by basing my designs in reality.

 

I wanted my alien creature to resemble the general shape of an ostrich. Ostriches are unusual and funky looking, so this aesthetic will work really well in a sci-fi drawing. First, I start my design by making a quick sketch of an ostrich.

Next, I add my Sci-fi elements. When making my Sci-fi designs I focus on juxtaposing themes. This gives depth to the drawing, while alluding to the possibility of a backstory.

 

Looking at my ostrich sketch, I know that I want him to be running in the desert. In addition, I would like to juxtapose something funky with the desert- like a fish. Odd thought process, but it works! From here, I alter my ostrich to fit my alien fish concept. I then tweak some design elements to make my alien look more futuristic and less normal. When creating my design, I really try to think outside of the box. To keep my design super sci-fi, I add robotic and alien characteristics.

 

Now I'm done with my design and ready to start drawing!

Character Illustration: Creating the First Layer

Now that I have my concept sketch, I start by choosing the colors for my design. On a new Raster layer I use the “Fill,” or bucket tool, to start laying down my colors quickly.

Now that I have my sketch and colors down, its time for me to take another look and reevaluate my proportions and positioning. This step is important because I don’t like to cut apart my artwork in the later stages, after I have put in smooth lines and shading.

 

I adjust my alien using the Selection Lasso, and now I’m ready to start drawing!

I start by cleaning up my design. To do this I work in my second layer, the layer I just filled my color into. I use my Oil Paint with 100% Amount of Paint, 100% Density of Paint, and 0% color stretch. Then I draw over my sketched lines with new, smoother lines. During this process I almost always use my brush at 100% stabilization. This allows me to get really nice smooth lines. When I’m done cleaning, I erase my sketched layer.

 

I am going to add a glass dome over the alien fish, which requires a totally different technique. At this point I take out the dome completely.

Character Illustration: Starting on my Details

Now I start adding my closer details. Before I start this, I almost always turn up the resolution of my photo so that Ill be able to zoom in closer. As I add detail, I continue to turn up the resolution if needed. I do this by going to Edit, Change Image Resolution.

 

On a new layer I add my iris and a few details that run along the edges of my creature. By having my edges on a separate layer I’m able to draw edge to edge much easier. If I overlap, it won't look like I’ve colored outside of the lines. I make sure to have ample edge details between the robotic belly and the feathered body.

 

Then I start to add a few broad details onto my fish creature. I put this on a new layer. When I’m drawing I really utilize those layers!

Character Illustration: Starting on my Shading

Now that I can see my basic details, I’m able to create my basic shading.

 

I start by making a layer for shading and use the Soft Airbrush tool to create my shadows. When using the airbrush tool, I like to keep the Stabilization low because I want the lines to react with the quick and light swipes of my pencil.

 

If my design is complex with shapes, I sometimes create a new layer below everything and give myself a set light point. This isn’t super necessary, but it helps to reference where my highlights and shadows should be. I look to see which lighting angle would be the most flattering for my design. For this alien my most flattering light point was obvious, as I knew that I wanted to highlight the top of the ostrich leg and the head of the alien fish.

 

To choose which colors I want to highlight with, I color match the area I’m highlighting, then make the color lighter and more vibrant. Some colors shade better with just a simple white, but when I use a more neon color it makes the photo appear more lifelike.

 

When I start my basic shading, I don’t use any kind of mask and I don’t worry about drawing outside of the lines. In the next step I’ll clean off the overlap very quickly.

Now I clean off the overlay of my basic shading. To do this, I go back down to my base layer and select the entire layer (go to Layer, Selection From Layer, Create Selection). I then move back onto my shaded layer, and Clear Outside Sections. Anything from the shaded layer that isn’t covering part of my Base Layer will be erased.

Now I use the same technique to shade the details of my alien.

 

During the shading process, I have several different techniques that I could use. I personally prefer to draw my shading in a new layer, and then erase the outside sections like I did in the above steps. This works well for me because it allows me to see my light source clearly.

 

When shading, I could also use the Lock Transparent Pixels mask. This makes it so that you can only draw over what is already drawn in working layer. This mask works well for shading because you can shade over what you have drawn, without drawing outside of the lines. This mask is located above your layers, and looks like a picture of a lock over a few squares.

Now that I have my basic details and shading, I start to go over my alien with many of the same techniques. I smooth and define lines, and continue to add shading.

Character Illustration: Special Technique: Eyes and Scales

When drawing the eyes onto my fish monster, I want to save some time. I Lasso Select an iris, Copy and Paste, and then Move and Scale it so that it fits my new destination.

To make the scales on the fish creature, I use the Cross-Hatch-X-1 tool to lay down a pattern. Then, to get rid of the outside lines, I use the same Select, Clear outside section in the previous steps.

 

Previously when I created the fish’s eyes, I made them on a higher layer. This allowed me to go back under the eyes and add texture to the body of the fish.

Now I add some shading to my scales. I use the Soft Airbrush tool to add a few highlights. I don’t want to highlight all of the scales, but a few specks of light make a huge difference!

 

My fish alien is going to be covered by glass, so I add more detail and shading to make him very obvious.

Character Illustration: Special Technique: Glass Dome.

I start making my glass by creating a super smooth dome in a Vector layer. I could have hand drawn it, but I trust the Vector layer to make my dome smoother and just a bit more perfect.

 

To do this I create a Vector layer, use the Continuous Curve tool to make a five point dome, and then use the Object Operation tool to click on my line and correct the points to where I want them. Then I create a new Raster layer below my Vector layer, and combine my Vector layer to the Raster Layer so that my dome is converted into a Raster layer.

Next, I completely fill in my dome with blue.

 

Once it’s filled in, I turn down the opacity of the layer. This gives the appearance that my fish alien is behind a layer of glass. To finish my dome, I shade it as if it's glass.

 

When I initially did this, after I was done with my dome, I decided I didn’t like the original neon blue color I chose. I changed the color to a more muted blue under Layer Property, Effect, Layer Color.

Character Illustration: Finishing it Up

I have a lot done on my alien, and now it's time for my finishing touches. To finish it I need to define and smooth lines, shade, and blur it all together. I continue this process until adding more makes it worse.

 

I combing some of my layers and use the Blend Blur tool to make my alien look less cartoonish and more realistic. By now, I have a lot of different layers. Combining layers is necessary so that when I blend them, they will react with one another. I don’t want to combine all of my layers however, so I put some of them into a separate layer folder. This way I’ll know what I want to keep separate. For example, I want to keep my glass dome separate from my fish, so that if I ever want to go back and alter my fish I can do so without messing up the glass effect.

 

Blurring and blending are great, but from time to time a stark line is needed. By blurring one side of the line into the surrounding colors, I make the design smoother and more lifelike. This smoothness works nicely in conjunction with strong lines.

 

In my finishing touches I also use the Airbrush Highlight tool, but I do so very sparingly! Too much of this tool can draw the eye in a bad way.

Creating my Sci-Fi Background Design

When making my background, I know that I want it to be something simple so that it doesn’t distract from my sci-fi alien. I also want to have a textured base to show depth of perception, and some kind of finishing detail. Because of these goals I choose to put my creature on an alien planet with soft sand dunes and a starry sky.

 

At this point I am not sure what I want my color scheme to be, but using the Layer Color tool, found in Layer Properties, I am able to change the colors in my layers and see what I like.

Background Illustration: Creating the Sand Duns

I start my background by creating a horizon line. To do this I make a layer underneath my illustration, and then select View Grid. Then I select Snap To Grid, and draw a straight line. From there I fill in half the page with color.

Next, I make a layer under my horizon layer. I draw in the silhouette of mountains, and then fill them in. Then I put a layer below my mountain layer, and use the Gradient, Foreground to Transparent tool, with different colors. I pull the gradient down from the top and up from the bottom, and overlap different color combinations.

Now I need to make my sand dunes. To start, I make a layer on top of my horizon layer. I then select Clip to Layer Below, found right above my layers. This tool makes it so that I can only draw over pixels in the layer below. Then I color match my horizon color, and make the color darker in my paint pallet. Taking the Gradient Foreground to Transparent tool, I pull up so that the color closer to the bottom of the page is darker than the color at the horizon line. By now you should have a nice gradient on your horizon, cutting off at the bottom of your mountains.

 

Then, to make my sand dunes, I take the lightest color of the sand dune gradient and draw overlapping triangles. I make sure that the higher up I go, the smaller the triangles get. I also shade them in a little, according to my Light Point.

Now I take the Blend and Blur tools and smooth everything together. I am not so concerned about keeping nice defined lines in the background. A more blurred and blended background will help my illustration by not pulling too much attention and focus.

Background Illustration: Creating the Night Sky

Now I begin to add my starry background. I start by creating a layer bellow everything else, and I fill that in with black, using the bucket tool.

 

To texture my space, I create a new layer on top of my black space layer, and go over the entire thing lightly with a white Soft Airbrush. I try not to go in any specific pattern. Taking a black airbrush, I then go over the white airbrush. This process creates the effect of a space like fog.

 

Next, I create a layer on top of my Space and select the Decoration Effect, Sparkle A Tool. Using a dark gray, I turn the particle size down super low, to about 21%. With the brush size turned up to 100%, I fill in a few tiny stars.

 

Then I turn up the particle size to about 50%, make my gray lighter, and fill in a few more stars. I continue this process of making bigger and brighter stars until my night sky looks full.

 

Taking a light purple airbrush, I make a faint spotted line. I blur some of the purple into the background.

To add my hand drawn stars, I start in a new layer with random white dots. I try to place my dots primarily around my nebula line. Then I take the Blur Tool and go around the dots to give them the effect that they are shining. Adding color around the edges of the stars with my airbrush gives a great space effect!

Background Illustration: Creating the Mountains

The first step in creating my mountains is to add layers and ridges. I create a new layer and use the mask Clip To Layer Below. With this mask, I won’t have to worry about drawing outside of my mountain silhouette.

Then I blur and shade my mountains, according to my light source. I rely on the Soft Airbrush and Blur tools during this step.

I then add texture to my mountains using the Vegetation Decoration tools. By turning down the particle size and using many different kinds of shrubbery- Grasslands, Trees, Grass A, B, and C, my mountains get a great and lifelike texture.

To finish my mountains, I want to make them look like they are farther away in the distance. To create this effect, I use a soft black airbrush and paint over the mountains lightly.

Illustration: Finishing it up.

At this point I am very close to being done with my drawing. To finish up my design I need to go in and clean up the finest details. I make sure to clean up details such as the lines inside the bolts and screws, the way the edge details blend into the body, the shading, etc.

 

I also look at how the character illustration works with the background. In this case, my background is quite dark, so I want to make my character a bit lighter. To do this, I select my character layers, go to Edit, Tonal Correction, Brightness and Contrast, and then I turn up the brightness a pinch. Now I am done with my Drawing!

Voila! Quirky, funny, strangely enchanting, and definitely Sci-Fi.