Loish
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WALKTHROUGH // comic cover - part 2
🕑 Added 2020-07-22 16:00:00 +0000 UTCYesterday I posted a detailed walkthrough for my first Horizon Zero Dawn comic cover! I wanted to quickly go through the other two as well, so you could see the same process applied to two different pieces.
PART 1 // COMIC COVER #2
The process for cover 2 was quite similar in essence! I’ll show you guys the steps a bit more quickly and briefly so you can see how the same process applies to a different drawing. For this issue, Talanah was on her own, but the things she had learned from Aloy were formative in her journey. I wanted to convey this by showing a moment where Talanah things back on Aloy and her influence. Here were my first sketches:
Then I added some rough color to the sketches, which was especially important in this case to convey the depth and the concept of aloy being a silhouette in the sky.
The feedback was to finalize variation 1, but with the Aloy from variation 2. So I quickly threw together a modified version of the rough sketch to double check if this worked:
The client liked it, so it was time to work on the rough version! I start with a sketch to work out the poses and expressions in more detail:
Then I add flat color to the sketch:
And then I start shading: first just the shadows, and then also more highlights as well:
Once I have the shading worked out, I can work in some lighting effects with gradients, and rim lights painted on separate layers. I also add some lines to indicate wind and movement.
I send this version to the client for feedback before finalizing it further. The client asked for me to shift some stuff around so we could see more of Aloy’s bow.
Then I take this feedback into my final image, moving Aloy to the right and adding that final pass of detail to bring this image to life! This consists mostly of adding a final pass of shines and highlights, as well as fleshing out Talanah’s armor. Again, it’s those small, fine details that elevate a painting to make it feel complete.
PART 2 // COMIC COVER #3
One more! You guys know the gist by now so I will jump through it quickly. For issue 3, I wanted to portray Talanah in a moment of self-reflection at hte campfire, wondering who she truly is under the armor. First the rough sketches:
Then some flat color. It was important for the mood to be dark, since I wanted the scenes to take place at night, or the latest stage of sunset:
For these, the glowing light of the campfire played an important role, so I spent more time working out lighting effects for each variation. Here’s the rough sketches with lighting effects:
The client chose option 3 - they really liked it and didn’t have any pointers. For the final version, I started with a more detailed sketch, working out the pose and expression:
Next, I worked on the background since it is so important for the mood. I used mainly gradients and blurred brush strokes, and of course used various reference images of a late sunset to get the vibe right:
On top of this, some base colors for Talanah:
Finally, I added some shading and finer lighting effects:
The client approved of this version, so it was time to finalize it! Mainly getting the finer details and highlights right: the loose strands of hair, the highlights on the golden details of her clothing, and the light on her face:
And once the client approved, this one was complete!
CONCLUSION
I hope these walkthroughs gave you guys some more insights into how client work goes for me. I use the same techniques as for my personal work, but I try to break it down into smaller iterations so that I can adjust to feedback if needed. It’s just so important to make sure that there is room for adjustments, and that the client gets the time they need to give their thoughts on the progress of the piece.
Some general tips for freelance work:
- See it as a conversation, where ideas go back and forth between different people. You don’t have to ‘nail it’ on your first try. Just send over your ideas and allow the feedback to guide your creative process. Never take the feedback personally - it’s all just part of trying to get the best possible result!
- Never spend too much time finalizing or perfecting anything until you’ve gotten the green light to do so! Otherwise you might waste a lot of time working on something that gets scrapped.
- Put together a good reference folder for your image. For this comic, it was really important to have good, detailed reference of the character outfits. Reference image of beautiful clouds were also helpful! Reference speeds up the process, so it’s extra important during client work. Invest some time beforehand to have those references in one place so you're not frantically browsing for them during the process.
I hope this was helpful! Again, if you have any questions about my client work process, feel free to ask in the comments below! Thanks for reading :)
Comments
Sasalele
I'M IN LOVE WITH THESE DESIGNS😍😍😍
Lauri Panopoulos Lauridesign.com
Hi Lois, Thank you!
Loish
hey lauri! glad you liked them! as for your question, i do gather reference for the stuff that i can't get from my imagination. in this case i needed reference of talanah's outfit annd facial features so that the likeness was correct. that's all i need to start. then, as i'm drawing, i just come up with ideas as i go. in this case i decided that a soft sunset feel would work best and so i worked on that until i felt that reference was needed. so basically, i only have reference for the essential stuff, and then look up references along the way if i feel like i need them. i try to challenge myself to use my imagination as much as possible because that usually results in a more fluid and intuitive drawing!
Lauri Panopoulos Lauridesign.com
Hi. Thank you so much for posting these. They're beautiful. The part where you write about asking for feedback in a timely manner is really helpful. Question about reference. For client work, before you begin your sketches, do you gather reference for poses and lighting first so you have something to go by for the finishing stages? Or do you start from imagination? If from imagination, do you then search for reference for pose and lighting after the fact to match the image that you created from imagination? Thank you!
Loish
hey! good question. I tackle that issue from 2 sides: first off, before we start, I try to give them multiple options and give them room for lots of feedback and pointers early on, so that the feedback doesn't drag out later in the process. second, I set deadlines for the feedback. they need to provide me with all their feedback before a certain time and that's it. if it's a client with lots of experience with working with creatives, they'll have a sense of what is reasonable and not reasonable to ask (for example, asking to change the angle when the painting is almost done - totally not reasonable.) if it's a client with little experience, i explain in detail what kind of feedback is appropriate at which point, so they know when they have reached the 'point of no return' and can't ask for changes on certain things. this has worked most of the time! of course there have been some freelance jobs that dragged out for a long time. but other freelance jobs were fast and easy. so it all balanced out in the end. i think clearly communicating the deadlines in advance is the best way to prevent the client from dragging it out past that deadline!
Adrien
Thanks for sharing these! I really appreciate being able to see where it's often necessary to be flexible with client work in case things need to be adjusted juuuuust a little bit. If it's something you're comfortable sharing, I'm curious about how fair pay plays into revisions. Do you discuss the number of revision cycles upfront? How often does a client want more time from you than initially discussed? Are they usually receptive to billing for additional work?
Kyla Roux
Thank you so much, that is extremely helpful to me and has me thinking about payment in a different way. I have always been concerned about that part of the process so this really puts things into perspective and puts my mind at ease. Thank you again.
Loish
hey angela! i would actually love to share more about that stuff. i'm thinking maybe a filmed Q&A session or livestream, something of that type, to talk freely about it and address people's questions! thanks for the idea!!
Loish
glad you liked it! as for your question, it's complicated.. it's different per person, per industry, per situation. I'd say you always want to aim for the highest possible income that you can get. but not so high that you have zero income. finding the balance between those two is tough and it's hard to tell if that's because of your price, or because your client is demanding an unrealistically low price. so first of all i would recommend getting in touch with peers in your industry and asking what a reasonable minimum price is in your area, and never going below that. me personally, i ask for a day fee. i avoid flat rates for a drawing because i could end up spending tons of extra time on it and not being paid for that. i also prefer to work with clients that have a high amount of trust in my art. i'm in a position where i can pick and choose those clients, but it hasn't always been that way. in the past i always set up a really clear schedule with delivery dates for certain steps, deadlines for feedback, and variations / options so that the client feels involved in the process. i'd say clear communication ahead of time is really important to make sure that the fee is justified and both parties know how much time goes in! so to answer in the most simple way, i charge a day rate for making art and i make a calculation of how much time something will take me to make and base my price on that. my advice to you would be: figure out how much you want to charge per hour or day, and get a good sense of how much time it takes you to make stuff, and base your prices on that. talk to people in your industry/area about what is reasonable. don't be afraid to ask what feels like a high amount because artists often undercharge! i hope this all helped in some way.
Loish
glad you enjoyed it!
Rob Callicotte
I love this. It's so helpful! Thank you for caring about what we want so we can learn!
Bastian Esteban Cruzat Cortes
I have te same question <3
Anthony
Definitely going to review this to help with my work; thanks so much for sharing!
Kyla Roux
Amazing covers and this post is very helpful. I am currently a student studying animation and have been trying to learn more and more about digital art after doing fine arts for most of my life. You probably get asked this a lot but I wanted to ask your advice on commission prices, do you have a set price range or do you discuss with the client about what they are willing to pay? It is something I have rarely dealt with but would be really helpful when I learn and expand more. Your style is so inspiring!
Angela
Thanks so much for sharing the two part walkthrough of your client work process!! Very thorough and a joy to read through. I always love seeing people's workflow and rough work, it's sometimes even more interesting than the final work and makes you appreciate the final product that much more 😊 I was wondering if you would also be comfortable sharing a bit more about the business side of your client work? Perhaps topics like tips on getting into freelance, pricing approach (e.g. time and materials vs fixed fee vs a mix), managing feedback and revisions, etc.?
