Challenge #51: The Falconer

[yhlee]

Title: The Falconer
Artist: yhlee
Rating: G
Fandom: Original Work
Characters/Pairings: The Falconer (I haven't given them a name yet)
Content Notes: I wanted to try a science fantasy Asian character portrait in Procreate and mess about with a Venetian-inspired mask.

Preview:



Art & process notes behind cut.



The actual piece!



Initial sketch - the mask and the figure are on separate layers so I could mess around with one without destroying the other. Separate colors are just to make them easy to process in my head.

So, remember the terribad series of watercolor sketches I did a while back around "fake Venetian masks"? Turns out it wasn't a waste of time after all.

I referenced Gold Belle Epoque for the mask in this piece, although I took a lot of liberties. Just browsing through Original Venice Shop is inspirational.



The final version of the color test. I messed around A LOT trying to find a color scheme that worked. So, I own that brown as a clothing color is one of my least favorite colors (my mom used to dress me in browns and beiges, UGH) and, left to my own devices, I would paint in red/gold/black/purple FOREVER, but c'mon, I have to branch out. Also, the character came into my head as the Falconer and I don't think falcons are purple. (Are they?)

I start playing with very very basic lighting as well because I realized a gold mask on tawny skin was going to...not be visible AT ALL unless I managed the lighting situation better. I also ended up going with a more desaturated tan for the face so that the saturated gold tones would "pop" more. And I ended up with bits of green as an accent color partly for the "cyber" factor (glowy light green reads "cyberpunk" to me, but maybe I'm weird) because I wanted to give this a science fantasy feel, and I was going to DIE of boredom if the whole thing was browns except the hair. (SORRY IF YOU LIKE BROWN, it's not you it's me.)



Starter lineart, which I clean up a bit as I go. I love Procreate's Inka brush - it has just the right amount of jagged roughness and character to it. I have seen BEAUTIFUL art with technical pen controlled lines but I want WILDNESS in my own work.

Also, you'll notice in the final piece that some of the lineart is tinted in various places - swear to God reading a tutorial by Tran Nguyen in an Imagine FX issue where she mentioned "keep colored lines instead of just black ones in mind as an option" was life-changing. Look, I am ROCK STONE STUPID at art. I need things explained to me in words of one syllable for them to stick. :p



Flat colors - I ended up separating the skin tones, hair/clothes, and mask so that shading would be less of a PITA. Sometimes if there's complicated braid (HI JEDAO), that goes on a layer of its own.



Here's the piece partway through the render - I've done a first pass here on the figure (face, hair, clothes in separate stages) but haven't yet touched the mask or background.

I added the fourth chain later. XD

Comments

[mific]

Ooh, love their expression, and the details of the mask and jewels. Exotic and mysterious!

[yhlee]

Thank you! I have been longing to paint fancy masks for a while. XD I am shallow. :)

[anerea]

How intriguing! Everything about this makes me want to know more about their story! (And seeing your process is interesting, thank you for sharing.) Beautiful!

[yhlee]

Thank you! :D

[mekare]

Oh what a stylish portrait! Love the chain you added last, and the colour palette. I also appreciate you sharing your process and thpoughts about colours.

[yhlee]

Thank you!

I struggle with color A LOT - learning (from eller) that you can test color schemes beforehand with scribbles before, you know, rendering the whole thing has been a lifesaver. XD

[amberdreams]

What a great interpretation for this challenge. I'm not familiar with the falconer, I'll have to look it up, but I love the Asian/Venetian fusion feel!

[yhlee]

Thank you!

You have no idea how salty I am that being a glasses-wearer makes wearing even cheap knockoff Venetian-style masks sort of a pain. XD (I bought a couple cheap ones for reference at a Renfaire once.)

[amberdreams]

As a fellow glasses wearer, I feel your pain!

[facethestrange]

The circuits on their neck look gorgeous and fit so perfectly with the green jewels! And I absolutely love all the golden elements - the chains (so detailed and popping and 3D-looking!) and the mask itself. ♡♡♡

ETA: I was flailing so hard that I forgot to say how interesting it was to read about your creative process this time too. :D

[yhlee]

Ah, thank you! You know, sometimes I am SO grateful for the internet - for the circuits I did a Google Images search to get the "feel" of what a circuit looked like. Ditto being able to easily look up Venetian mask photos! And I see that my obsessive habit of drawing chains back in high school has finally paid off. XD

I have had some artists tell me that they plan EVERYTHING out in advance but I always end up changing things on the fly! *sweatdrop* At least digital makes that easy. For things like doing a color test...I think an experienced artist would be faster at homing in on a good color scheme. (I spent like an hour on the color scheme layer before landing at something that made me happy.) I personally struggle with color, so taking the extra time really helps me before I commit to a thing. I think my analogy here is with composing (I compose neoclassical/orchestral music as a hobby), where I have a LOT more experience - I can very rapidly rule out certain harmonic progressions that don't work for what I'm doing or go very quickly through combinatorial possibilities because I have that knowledge base. With art, I'm still learning, so I'm correspondingly slower and instead of "intuitively" doing things like picking a palette, I end up scribbling down colors to see if they work until I get something good. XD Fortunately, for a hobby that's okay. XD

[facethestrange]

Yessss, more than half (or nearly all?) of my preparation before starting to draw is staring at relevant google images. :D

Thank you for spending the time sharing all these details with me! It's one of my favorite things to find out how other people do things. :) For me re: coloring, I kinda just... color, without preparation, but I don't know if it means that I do it intuitively or if I'm simply going to like the end result even if the color palette is "objectively" weird. I tend to love weird color combinations even in real life, not just in art, so it might be the latter. ;D And I'm honestly in awe that you're a composer, as someone who doesn't even have any basic idea about making music. It sounds so complicated and super cool, and completely nowhere near my talents. :D

[yhlee]

I love hearing about other people's art processes too! I have actively bad color intuition and the times I've tried to just wing color schemes have been, uh, very hit or miss to say the least. XD It's so great that you're able to color freely! :D

Out of scope for this comm, but if you ever stop by my DW, I'm always happy to talk shop about composing. :3 (You're welcome to drop a comment on any public post, I'm easy.)

[facethestrange]

Oh yay, thank you, I subscribed to your journal! :) I honestly know nothing about composing and making music in general, to the point of having no idea how to even begin talking about it, lol, but I'm always happy to talk about anything, or to marvel at your composing superpower. :D

[goss]

I love this!! So many amazing little details, and everything came together really nicely. I love the mask! \o/ And the hair! And the circuitry details make it even more intriguing.

I am not the biggest fan of neutrals like brown as a main colour scheme, but you really made it work well when paired with the green and gold highlights. :D

[yhlee]

Thank you! I...actually hate neutral palettes lolol, which is why I felt compelled to try to see if I could make one work. XD Left to my own devices, I would be painting in black/red/gold/(purple) forever but probably one should try for a LITTLE more variety lolol.

[minoanmiss]

BEST CHALLENGE EVER

this picture is worth 10,000 words at least. The details and layerz and personality in her face and pose! I want to talk to her! I hpe she sould delign to talk to me!

[yhlee]

Ah, thank you! :D

[adafrog]

Neat. :)

[yhlee]

Thank you!