Friday, May 4, 2012

The Blog is MOVING!!!!

Hi everyone, I'm migrating the blog over to be part of my updated website lukewatsoncreations.com.

The actual link is this... http://lukewatsoncreations.com/theblog/

 Obviously...




So this blog will remain here for you to look at, misty eyed, longing for the good old days, while the new blog and website will be up to heaps of new stuff.

So thanks so stopping by 19472 times over the past few years and please come over to the new blog, RSS, and catch up with what I'll be doing in the future.

Cheers,


Luke

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Cropdusters Step-by-step

Step 1: So I had this idea, of old time crop dusters.  I found some pretty good references to get me started, but not a great one of the old style bug sprayer...but I did up a loose sketch to get the layout how I had in my mind.


Step 2: I've added a low opacity mid tone to the canvas ( as always ) and began to block in the face an body, the face is nearly there.  At this stage I ised two or three different references, but I still haven't found what I'm after with the bugsprayer, and I don't have one lying around to photograph myself, so I've left it blank.

Step 3: The main character is done and I have still left the arm blank.  Ready to start on the background and I'm pissed off at this stage about the right arm...

Step 4: Added the sky, I'm pretty happy with it as it only took about 5 minutes to paint using a a blue to white gradient, a couple of standard PS brushes and the gaussian filter.  The plane I painted in quite a bit of detail as I wasn't yet sure of how I wanted the depth of field to play out in the final version.  It was fun to paint as well.

The right arm has founf it's place after I finally found a couple of good reference shots.  It's at a different angle to how I initially imagined, but I think it gives the character a strong pose and a tight grip on the bug sprayer.

Step 4: Added some extra people in the background, painted quite loosely as I knew that they would be dropped out of focus in the final version.  And yes, I also added a lense flare, shut up.  It's because at this stage I know I'm aiming for an older looking style to the illustration...

Step 5: I've added the crop below and some basic shadows.  I've also worked out how I want the depth of field to work and resixed a couple of the elements to better fit the overall look.  I'm also adding highlights and spray details.

 Step 6:  I've added a texture Overlay layer to age the illustration and a low opacity, black to white, gradient on a multiply layer to add a bit more shading...

Step 7:  The final step is to add an old polaroid as a texture layer to add a bit of fun to the final piece.

Thanks for reading,

Luke