Gears of War _ process

i wanted to upload a process piece of how i did that gears of war wallpaper: [link]

this is pretty much how i paint these days. i like to start w/ a thumbnail and work out the BG early, so i'm not left wondering what i should do w/ it at the end. i don't care to use lines/ line work of any kind; they're very constricting and take way too much time, b/c i'm gonna paint over them anyways. it's just way easier to think of the details in terms of shapes and forms, silhouettes and values. i put the values down flatly first, then add lighting accordingly. fortunately, these characters had similar values, making it easier to paint. i always paint grayscale before color, b/c it allows you to focus on the lighting, form, and values and getting those right before colors.

the biggest challenge was getting all the characters' details right. i couldn't find any model sheets of the characters, so i had to go through shit-tons of images from ign, just to find tiny little details about their pouches, backpacks, boots, wrist pads, straps, belts, etc. i had to take certain things from other characters, since they each have slightly different details. but holy shit! there is just so much detail to worry about. it took about 3 hours each just to paint dom and the locust drone in the middle-ground there. i think it took around 8ish hours to paint marcus though, just because he had to be even more detailed and accurate than the other two, as he is the foreground.

getting their faces right was also a challenge because their proportions are not what a normal human is, they are "larger than life." like giants almost. and i had a real rough time getting the basic shape of fenix's face and features. idk... his face is kinda weird. also drawing his face in 3/4 from below. little difficult b/c i couldn't find any good reference of that. whatever.

the great thing about painting in greyscale is that you can change the colors easily if you mess it up. that first color scheme was very dark, and not very dynamic, and kinda made everything flat. i mean, i kinda like it, but it killed a lot of the details i put in the image. so the second color pass is a lot better than the first, alot more dynamic mix of warm and cool, and works better to pull the characters forward. but i'm still not super happy with it. just didn't have the time or energy to deal with it anymore.

i had worked on this for about 60ish hours total, the bulk of which was dealt with over the weekend and 3days before it was due. wish i had started earlier. pulling an all-nighter then having to go to work for 8hrs, then having to paint for 4hours more at home to finish the entry was not cool. so much pain in my right arm and back.

i included some close-up shots at the bottom. they're a little bigger than the file itself b/c the wallpaper size is the size i painted it at, not 2-3 times bigger like i would usually do. my computer's getting old, and can't handle such ridiculousness. so you'll have to excuse the pixelation. i like to paint close to my image, so i put in extraneous details that may otherwise be overlooked. just showing those off.

but it was a pretty fun[ish] and helpful experience. i hadn't painted outside of work in months, so it was also nice to be able to paint something different, even if only slightly.

so yeah, that's that. all painted in photoshop, w/ tons of game references.