You make some of the most beautiful artwork I've seen. Thanks for sharing

Nice work.

*blinkblink* Wow, that's a complete reversal. I certainly didn't expect color and shape first. It takes some vision to plan it this way. :)

I used to do most of my thumbnails in black and white, but unless your eventual piece is going to be in black and white, I found I was lacking a lot of what the final piece would be. When you're in the most important stage, the planning stage for the ENTIRE piece, I feel like it's best to have as many of the core elements there as possible, while still doing so in a quick fashion, so you can create several thumbnails to compare.

well I've obviously been doing it wrong @.@

^

That's so cool I love it when you post "behind the scenes" stuff and tutorials.

He looks like he's asking the dragon for directions.

"NO, no. . . I said LEFT at the intersection, THEN you turn right onto the highway. . . ."

awesoome

http://www.forimpact.org/wp-content.....wToDrawOwl.jpg

lol, that's awesome

thats pretty much what you did though, no one can learn from steps like these D:

This isn't a tutorial that details the process of specifically doing linework, or specifically doing anatomy, or specifically doing lighting. It's a general tutorial for the process I use for an entire piece. Most artists who have been studying art seriously already have a general idea how to do a gesture drawing, or how to set up a lighting scheme. But I get a lot of questions about how to form an image from the ground up. These are the most basic steps. I'll eventually be going in and doing more specific tutorials for the specific elements, but I'm starting out with the broad strokes.

If it's not of use to you, the more specific ones might be.

Actually, I thought the color thumbnail was a great idea, including redrawing it multiple times before moving back into the B&W work. I've not seen that suggested before. It seems like a superior workflow for those who think in color. Just wish I did.

Colouring first... that is... actually a pretty good idea o:
I'll definately be trying this, fail horribly and continue drawing like I'm used to again. :D
Thanks for the insight!

This question is likely totally cliche haha, but do you mind me asking what program and brush settings you use to have such a perfectly pencil looking sketch? If you don't want to divulge such a secret I'll understand of course Just reaaaally dig that sketch quality!! <3

Also, it's crazy impressive that you block out your character and background colours, lighting, and composition before even doing a rough sketch :O I am years and years behind this kind of work but I hope I can eventually work my way up there :) My biggest current struggle is understanding how lights and atmosphere affect colours, I feel really over my head every time I try painting something, and usually end up with mud haha!

I use Adobe PS CS2, but I wouldn't recommend it, being as they stopped supporting it recently, and now it's all buggy :P

As for the brush I use for linework, it's the most basic of basic brushes. It's the round brush, with the diameter brought all the way down and keyed to pen pressure, so I can vary the width of the strokes by how hard I press.

Seriously, I need to teach myself how to draw. This just further pushes me to actually get off my ass and try.

Looks like something from the Hobbit owo

Always exciting to see how the process works for artists^^

this is a new and cool method :D
and seeing how lovely your works are (even if i rarely say it)
it shows a lot of the work needed to make it so gorgeous :)

Interesting how you have a colored phase before you start sketching. Most artist tutorials suggest sketching first. It just goes to show you that there's more than one way to get work through a piece.

You make this look so easy

Really cool, I love seeing progress shots, and with added helpful commentary to boot? Awesome!

This is... lovely... Thank you!

Gah, I should really make use of thumbnails.

Nice! All that scale work is fantastic. Love how you draw dragons.

thanks for the tutorial :).

Oh wow, I've never seen the coloring done first. That's actually pretty unique.

It...kind of fits with my "scratch everything on the paper and erase until it looks good" style.

I...may have to try that out some time! '0'

i wish i could draw, this is simply beautiful