Random Concept

I created this after playing about in photoshop and illustrator, it is a vector graphic and so can be scaled up or down without losing quality. Just an idea really (doesn't relate to anything!)

 

Brush Presets

 Just playing around with a variety of brushes I have to create a more traditional style, I like how the digital strokes do show through though and produce some very defined strokes. I would like to go further with this an perhaps make an environmental piece based on this brush set?

Development

The depth in this painting has been more defined by deciding on a fixed lighting point, where as before I was trying to for something which was more like global illumination which made it appear flat. This face needs more work as it still looks wrong, generally needs to have harsher shading and more definition in the lips and eyes. 

I've started adding smaller details now such as the scars and tattoos on his arm. I've also been experimenting with his weapons on his back (currently two Katanas). 

The chest has been bulked out, along with the scarf around his neck to give it a more realistic interpretation; the chain-mail under his metal armour would clearly be thicker than his actual skin and so needed to be widened. I've added an additional buckle and weapon to his back to give a bit more 'power' to the character, I felt the crossed buckles broke up the linear symmetrical design quite well.

Progression of Digital Painting

Initial line drawing which has been refined to something I can begin painting on. I've kept this at the top of all my layers and locked it to ensure it won't be modified when I'm editing other layers.

Beginning painting to try and get a feel for the colours, I blocked in the foot to see if the colours would play off each other well or not. There is no light source as such currently, this is something I can add later on once I have a more definitive image.

I have now began layering on top of the line drawing so the more complete areas do not get affected nu the rough sketch and I can get a better idea of the final piece and where its heading.

I've decided to use a brown leather buckle to hold the Katana in place, this brings the strong brown of the trousers up through my model which helps break it up a bit. I'm trying to introduce a 'trait' to the character so he is linked with some form of tribe or symbol and I have chosen a cog for this (I quite like cogs..).

As well as bringing the brown through, also bringing the same kind of metal through the character I felt was important. I'm a little worried of the perspective of the feet now I have a more 'full' picture of the model and I will correct this at a later stage.

I think adding the chain-mail has worked quite nicely as it gives the piece some different textures, I've tried to make the tones of the belt, chain-mail, Katana and scarf to communicate with each other.

The character is posed in the generic T-position, in case at a later stage I wanted to try and model this piece (if I continue on to make a side profile from the line drawing!). I feel the design is working well so far but the skin colour isn't right yet. I have also made adjustments to the feet, I don't know if they're going to be the final pair though.

More progress but this time I have added a coloured backdrop to see how it would suit in an environment. It looks more complete now but needs a lot of refinement.