Paizo Sample: Finished Under-drawing

Here is the final under-drawing for the first Paizo sample illustration I am working on. [I ask pardon for the poorer scan quality. I am currently house-sitting for an old friend of my family and used their scanner/printer.] I took my time with the drawing wanting to capture all the wonderful costume details that Wayne Reynolds created in the original designs. All these great little pouches, buckles, medallions, and doo-dads. Layers upon layers of costume, which I find I need to start working into my own designs and in how I detail characters. Usually it is one layer for me with all the details on that single surface, but after examining a lot of my favorite artists work I see that their details are built up and that in one layer in particular their might not be that much detail, but through creating multiple layers of detail the overlapping multiplies the complexity. While this might create some cumbersome costumes if made into real clothing, some of these characters would have to spend hours just getting dressed, visually I find the layering quite striking and appealing.

In this drawing I incorporated more lighting information. Most of my drawings in the past were pure line-work, which when used as an under-painting does not convey much information and is a remnant of the days when I was going for more of a comic style in my illustrations. Also in looking into the processes of artists I admire I saw that their under-drawings where more about overall shapes, accuracy, and light & form, then tight edges and a finished look. Being that I greatly enjoy drawing I still kept the drawing fairly tight, but over time this will probably loosen up. I am unsure. Spending so much time on creating a tight drawing slows down the overall process, but drawing is the part I enjoy the most.

One of the critiques I received at GenCon was to have more realism in my faces and less of an animated look. So, I will be especially focusing on the rendering of the faces in this piece. One concern I still have is the foreshortening of Ezren's arm. I've taken reference for all the characters, but something about it still bothers me. However, I need to more forward on the piece and will just readdress the arm in the painting phase after spending some time away from it to see if when I come back whatever is bothering me will jump out.