Fantastic morning everyone! I've been trying my hand at backgrounds since my last post and have gotten some really great feedback from you guys asking for alittle peek into the process. It's alot like my usual process except with alot more Shift key usage. Probably throughout my entire life I've avoided straight lines, which has caused me to throw out architecture entirely... I know, what a tragedy! Well I've faced my fears, grappled with one and two point perspective, and realized it's not as hard as previously thought. Check it out by scrolling in the downward direction! (note, the pictures are alittle fuzzy for some reason so click on them and they will appear as crystal as that first day you realized that professional life is not at all like college life.)
Thumbnail and tighter drawing, these are done pretty small since I don't care too much about details at this moment, just need to get a good composition.
Flat geometric shape layer. I get all the straight lines by using the shift key and then transforming and distorting that flat line into the angle and thickness I need, it is time consuming, but not too bad.
Full colors with shadows and highlights. By this time I've already created my lines which have obviously determined where to put many different items and light breaks.
Line added. Same thing for the straight lines here, using basically a 1 or 2 pixel line and then transforming it to get the angles right.
Here's the background of the background. I really loved treating the colors under the line in a looser way, it's on one layer and treated in a painterly way, not worried about getting outside the lines.
Just add snow! The weather is on a different layer, you're seeing some grain brushes used as well as a plain round brush for the bigger flakes and then motion blurred to the right consistency of moderate blizzard.
Here they are added together, the cliche' warm to the cool, cozy to the freezy. I will say that the hardest part of this image was to separate the outside scene from the interior as far as values and colors. Color balance and hue/saturation were again my go-to couple.
Curious Asian child that looks alittle like my wife with not so equally curious reindeer that looks alittle nothing like my pet reindeer or the reindeer references I used to draw him.
Santa in his day-off heather grey sweats puttering about the kitchen.
All in all I wanted to make this image to send out to my client list for the season as well as give Santa Klaus an upgraded environment, he's been at this game a long time, he's probably worked his way into a posh city flat. Oh and also to give you all riveting content so you come visit my website way more than you should! Have a blessed one!