Painting Process- The Pit Fight

Sharing some of my process here while cleaning up HDD.
Below is a piece done for Midnight- Crown of Shadow
AD: Antonio Mainez
© 2022 Edge Studio. Midnight. All rights reserved

For this piece I was asked to paint an underground fighting pit of a dwarf squaring off with a giant spider, with spectators surrounding it. I received a great amount of references, thanks to Antonio!
But a few ideas came to mind- Luke vs Rancor from Star Wars, image below. The set up feels similar and I remember vividly how terrifying it was to see it when I was just a kid.

Luke Vs Rancor

I tried to understand the space first before making a composition.

Did a rough sketch to confirm with Antonio if this is alright.

Then I proceed to sketch the composition. * Click the arrows back and forth if you’re keen to see progress differences*

I wanted the spider to be like an ‘umbrella’ and we (the camera) are just underneath it. Okay, a patio/ large beach umbrella.

Though the previous composition- scale contrast, more dynamic visually.
Emotionally I prefer this where we are much closer to the main character, more in-the-scene. Also did line art where it will be beneficial to tackle tricky shapes and forms.

Once I have sorted out general lighting, I did main and secondary colour lay in. I remembered a scene from Game of Thrones where the hound fight Lord of Light. It was in a cave and some natural moon/ sky light? I went to revisit it and reference mainly the light and colour. love the cool tones reflected off the forehead.

Cut out the spider onto separate layer, fill up background, refine main character

more refinements

Curve adjustment, fine noise and sharpen filter

Water Tiger

Hey, I’m back to blogging ;)
For weeks, I was haunted by the idea that some art that I’ve made could be tampered by too many factors/ influences/ purpose, except what I truly want it to be.

So I gave myself this small project of painting a Water Tiger for Chinese New Year.
Perfect chance to reflect, think about what I want to say, and how I say it (visually)..to myself. This is important, I realise most of the time I consider the viewer/ client’s POV, I rarely think about myself.
Not a yellow and red dominant piece to suit the thematic festive palette. There was much more self-conversation going on. I love it- the process.

Anyway, I hope this tiger, though battled brings clarity, courage and protection to everyone all year round.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Brash Samurai

One of the card art for Fantasy Flight Games.
It was fun and I love it that they wanted to have a balance of looseness and details.
lucky to be part of this awesome set!
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/legend-five-rings-showcase/
© 2016 Fantasy Flight Games

Yummy prawns