Design Brief 3 - Character Design - Digital

Right, So I am going to 'Digitally Realize' my character. This is going to be fun!

I am using Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 and a Wacom Bamboo Pen (New black square thing)

Stage 1: Import picture into Photoshop

Stage 2: Drawing her again

I used a hard brush of about 5px in black for the outline. The Bamboo pressure allowed me a more natural feel.

I also added a while background on a separate layer.

Step 3: Colour

I used 2 methods to fill in the colour; The select inverse method and the brush method. The brush method is easy. Just paint the space. The select inverse method is as follows;

- Go to 'outline' layer

- Using 'Magic wand tool', select all areas which you don't want to work on (eg, If you want to work on the dress, select everything which isn't the dress)

- Press Ctrl+Alt+I

- Go to new layer and fill with colour.

I keep each colour on a separate layer. This is for ease of editing later

Step 4: Shading

It is a little difficult to see in this picture, but various areas are shaded in slightly darker colours.

Step 5: Re-realization

I looked at my above image and something didn't feel right, So I went back over her and redrew the head to have the hood down and to make it look like her head is further forwards, like she is creeping towards the viewer

Step 6: Face

Using methods I have previously described, I drew on her face

Her face is a little reminiscent of a pop art picture I saw once before by Roy Lichtenstein

Step 7: Hair

I have spent a little time trying out different hair on my character (See - Character Design - Faces)

I adjusted her face a little more and added the hair like style 2

Step 8: Finalizing her

I dirtied her feet, added a subtle skin texture to the whole body and added some texture to the dress

Fin