RECONSTRUCTING 'UNDER FIRE'

A lot of people have asked me how I produced the fan-art picture Under Fire. Due to the magic of science, layers and blind luck, I can show you how, to a certain extent. I say to a certain extent, because I did not continuously save the picture at different stages, so you will not be able to see some intermediary levels of work...unless I recreate them, which I may do at a later date for the sake of clarity. Anyway, What follows is a rough step-by-step guide to the picture. Let the painting commence!

Strange as it may seem, I was inspired by an old ink-pen sketch I had done of a fantasy character...

Old Ink Sketch

As you can see, it's a very rough and simple sketch, more about pose than anything else. Using the sketch as a basis, I roughed out a version of Kyle Katarn from it in Paintshop Pro, using the Erase tool to remove unwanted lines (such as the cloak and hair), and then simply added basic patches of colour with the Airbrush tool using a picture of Kyle as a reference.

Rough rendering of Kyle Katarn

As you can see, I simply coloured over and expanded on lines where Kyle's clothes would be. Don't be afraid to be bold...especially if you have retained your original sketch. Once I had the basic Kyle figure, I thought of a scenario in which to place him. I needed an environment, and one of the best graphics programs I have used for this sort of thing is Painter. I decided on a night-time scene, and came up with the following rough...

Picture of background (unlit)

I mostly used the Oil brushes in Painter of varying sizes, types and colours, at first just adding splodges of colour, and then working them together to form the sky and ground. You'll often find the hardest part is picking the first colour and making the first stroke, particularly if you don't have a particular image in mind. I just let the picture form itself, really - some of my best efforts come from random doodling. The thing to remember here is that night skies are rarely pure black - deep shades of blue or purple look beter. As for rock formations, you can refer to real-life pictures for inspiration, or just mess around until you have something you feel is right. I encourage everyone to experiment in this way. The scene was initially too dark and dreary, so I added the column of smoke, and brightened the area around it to give the hint of fire. I intended to add some highlights to the scene later. This I did in Paintshop Pro...

Pic of background (lit)

As you can see, by simply adding light areas to the rock to give it some definition, the scenery suddenly jumps out. I used a yellow Airbrush for this, keeping it quite transparent and just working over the surfaces until I was happy with the definition. I used yellow to continue the theme of the fire glow in the background...but you can also experiment with the LightenRGB tool (under the options on the Tool palette) to put highlights on objects. The thing to note here is that you should never be afraid to mix light with dark areas. Also, if you keep lighting effects on a separate Layer, you can easily undo any changes you have made if you are unhappy with them.

COMPOSITION

Now we have a scene, and a character. But what to do with them? Well, set the scene of course. I introduced Kyle on a separate Layer, so it was easy to switch him in and out of the scene, and move him into position.. because I wanted him to remain the centre of attention, that's where I placed him. Because he is looking to the right of the scene, I allowed enough room for something else to be placed there, to draw his attention. Here is the scene with Kyle in place...

Background with Kyle

I placed the blade of what would be the lightsaber deliberately against the darker background of the column of smoke, to make it appear brighter. The lightsaber will be the brightest object in the scene - because the brightest colour you can obtain on a computer screen is pure white, all other elements have to be darker, even other lights. The colour of the lightsaber is simply produced by adding a blue glow with an airbrush tool (set to high transparency), and then I rendered a hot white core, and smeared the colour into it. I wanted the saber to appear as if it was in motion, so I simply extended the white of the blade, and smeared the colour slightly to show the direction of motion.

As for Kyle Katarn...now that I had placed him in the scene, I had a good idea concerning how he should be lit, and where the darker shadows would lie. I worked for some time on the figure of Kyle. I was not happy with his face, so I changed it...in fact, I kept on changing it, and changing it. I could not get the features I wanted, and I was in danger of getting stuck in a continuous loop, so I stopped myself and settled for what you see in the picture. I am still not happy with the face...along with certain other elements...and will change it at a later date.

Rendered Kyle

Artwork is largely about lighting, and the contrasts between light and shadow. You only see something because it is lit by a light source. Try turning out the light in a room with drawn curtains at night, and you'll see what I mean. So light plays a major role in what you actually see...and the source of that light is vitally important when rendering shadows and highlights. If a scene contains more than one light source (and this particular scene does), then highlights and shadows become even trickier. So looking at the rendering of Kyle, you will see that some areas are heavily shadowed where the light sources should not be able to reach. He almost has a yellow glow around him, because he is brightly lit from the back due to the fire. The lightsaber adds some blue highlights to his front, arms, the side of his face and hair. I used a lot of the Airbrush to add colour, but also used the freehand Selection tool to isolate some areas and used the Colourize function to obtain a particular shade quickly before adding a highlight or shadow. To add shadows, you can simply use the Eye-dropper tool to quickly select the colour of an object in the scene (for example, Kyle's trouser leg), and then use the colour palette to select a darker shade. This helps to maintain continuity. Then you can simply blend these areas together with the Smear tool. When using the smear tool, you should be careful about the strength of the effect, and I usually work with an opacity of around 10 for blending, and much higher for dragging an area of a particular colour along a given path.

IMPERIAL ENTANGLEMENT

Okay, it's all very well having Kyle out in the wilderness with his lightsaber drawn...but who is he supposed to be fighting? I had decided while rendering Kyle that he should be up against the Empire on this outing. I initially intended to place a Stormtrooper on the righthand side of the scene, but I left it blank in case a better idea came up, and as it happens...one did. But I'll go into that later...

The next thing I added was the Stormtrooper on the ridge. I added another layer and initially started with just a white blob - more of a stick figure in the right pose. Then I scouted the internet for some pictures from the actual movies as a reference, and squeezed in as much detail as I could. All I can recommend here is to practice and persevere in getting the physical details right. Because Stormtrooper armour is fairly reflective, I needed to capture a hint of the glow from the fire and from the firing blaster, so I used the aribrush with high transparency again, and the smear tool to blend any rough edges.

The Ridge Stormtrooper

The picture was starting to take shape, but there was a bare patch of ground on the left. I didn't really want to add much detail to the ground itself, so I decided to place another object in the scene. What better choice than a dead Stormtrooper? So I set up another layer, and fleshed out a fallen Stormtrooper, complete with a severed arm. I didn't want too much detail for this character, because I wanted the focus to remain on Kyle. The process was basically the same as the Ridge trooper - add a layer, start with a rough white blob in the right pose, add the details from a reference, then add the highlights and shadows.

The Dead Stormtrooper

The time had come to make a decision, because I already had two Stormtroopers in the picture. I thought a third would be too much...so I went for something a bit more complicated...an Imperial Probe Droid. Starting another layer, I painted a rough shape of the droid in black. Again, I used a picture from the movies as a reference to add the details, then carefully looked at all of the light sources falling on the droid, which has a more reflective surface. You will see that I added the glow from the fire, the glow from the lightsaber, and the glow from the Droid's own headlamp. I kept it deliberately blurred as it was supposed to be closer to the camera, as shown below...

The Imperial Probe Droid

So all of the elements were now in place...but the picture lacked something. There was too much open ground, so I decided to bring in a rock in the foreground, deliberately out of focus. This took another layer. I also decided to spice up the picture with some more highlights, and a blaster shot from the Stromtrooper on the ridge. And that is how I ended up with...

UNDER FIRE

So there you have it, a rough guide to how I produced the picture Under Fire. If I have inspired you to produce a picture of your own, then good luck. You might want to check my 10 Tips to get you started.