On my continuing journey in studying digital painting, I chose portraits of characters from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as my subjects. Choosing subjects I'm familiar with eliminates inventing a story background and just proceeds to portraying the essence of these characters.
First up is Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.
I started quite rough at first to get the overall direction I want the painting to go. In this case a full front view with a dramatic light coming from the bottom conveying the feel of being under the ocean.Method wise what changed here is I put some thought first into what I'm painting rather than depend on happy accidents (like the usual). This I found out saves a lot of time and energy.
Afterwards, making a new layer over the rough and adding details is fun and less stressful since early on the art direction was already established in the rough stage. Just proves that with careful planning there's a high chance you'll get a satisfying result. This work was spread in two days for a total of 5 hours.
