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Step 4 -
The early composition did involve observant monkeys hanging on trees if you look closely at the upper right hand corner, and for some odd reason, this idea crossed my mind that another figure should be sort of riding the beast, or controlling its actions. That really didn’t go over too well, since the scale of the painting meant that the dinosaur would be gigantic, thus making its surroundings more detailed than what I wanted to show. Another decision that was made was to crop the left side of the image so that there would be less space between the man and the beast, because I wanted a more dramatic feel. At this point, I’m still using the default round brush and painting in black and white.
Step 5 - It was time to throw down some color, and to indicate general forms and shapes. Using a combination of multiply, overlay, screen, and soft light, I gave some starting base colors to the forest, dinosaur, and the figure. These layer modes are useful for laying in basic colors without covering up the line work. If you think in line like I do, this technique is extremely helpful. Depending on how you think, you may prefer starting off with line art or you may choose to immediately use solid color to block in shapes, masses, and just go nuts. Either way is fine, it is all a matter of comfort and finding whatever method works in your favor. For me, I find it easier to conceptualize and see things in line.
Step 6 -
Using a few layers to build up the colors gradually, I continued to push some of these base colors in order to make the image pop more. I was going for a late afternoon, early evening atmosphere, so I wanted everything to have a dark blue-green tinted overcast, with a primary focal area bit brightly defined and lit. For now, it seems to be where the dinosaur is standing. The colors are quite saturated right now, but that will be changed later on. Also, I decided to change the rock on the left and add some trees in front of and behind the dinosaur in order to define this environment a bit further.
Step 7 - This step is a bit of a jump I know, but from here on out, it was a process of straightforward painting. Just a lot of time and trying to find what I want within the picture. Many additions such as clothing on the figure, details in the rocks, leaves, and trees that helped the image come together. I made the dinosaur much bigger, to heighten the effect of the narrative. Sometimes you just have to push paint or in this case pixels around until whatever it is you want starts to unfold. Another pointer that helps is to really observe what you want to illustrate. Try to understand what it is you’re drawing or painting from a color, form, and shape standpoint. Sometimes it’s not just about replicating what is in front of you. Several custom brushes were made from scratch in order to make the textures a little more personal, in order to get away from the traditional round brushed look that Photoshop has, nothing against that look since I myself do like at certain times, but I wanted something that felt more organic. Many different brushes can be variations of the chalk brush built into the program, tweaked with either shape dynamics, texture or the dual brush options checked on or off. So have fun and just play around with it.
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