Category: illustration process

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illustration process

Illustration Process- PL: Miracle Mask redraw

I’ve recently gotten into the Professor Layton series, and it’s games have been a constant source of inspiration! Engaging mysteries and challenging puzzles have been on my mind for a few months now thanks to them. I’ve done quite a few drawings for it by now, but I got an idea for another illustration around the game that introduced me to it all: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.

I had found out that the Japanese version of the game had an update that added extra cutscenes, and one in particular caught my eye.

Said cutscene I though was cute for obvious reasons. Source: https://youtu.be/8TWOpWgGeeo?t=79

A cute little scene of Layton (on the left) and his assistant Emmy (the right) dancing. I really liked it, and suddenly I had decided to do a screenshot redraw. I’d recently been experimenting with lineless artwork, and chose to go that route with this picture as well.

I started off with a very rough base sketch, just getting the poses down.

Next I got as clean of a sketch as I could of essentially the final picture. Since I’ll be doing lineless I need as clear direction and details as possible.

After the sketched was prepared I laid out all the base shapes and colors of Layton and Emmy to build the details on.

Next was was adding the faces and smaller details of the clothes and hands.

Here was where I started on the background, paying close attention to the screenshot reference.

Since the shading would be coming next I went ahead and added all the lighting details in the background.

Character shading, there wasn’t that much so it didn’t take too long

Character highlights.

After adding extra lighting details and an overlay, the picture is done!

I really love how this came out and so far it’s one of my best lineless works. Hope to keep experimenting and improving! Thank you for reading, and give the Professor Layton games a look! You might find yourself wrapped in a puzzle.

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illustration process

Illustration Process- Young Heroes

After getting into Rayman again recently, I started thinking about how much fun it is seeing game mascots together in series like Smash Bros and other crossover games. I decided to do an illustration of some of my favorites coming together, and thought it would be fun to draw their younger selves for it.

This was a rather tough one to figure out at first. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but not exactly how I wanted to show it.

First I thought about Rayman telling young Mario, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic about his adventures in a book, but I wasn’t a fan of the composition.

Then I played around with the idea of him teaching them, since almost all of them had some sort of learning games. However, I still didn’t like how it was coming out.

Eventually I ended up finding a nice solution and a composition I was happy with. I kept the idea of Rayman reading to baby Mario, while having Sonic and baby Crash off in the background.

I refined the character sketches and fleshed out the background a bit. I was referencing referenced Pink Plant Woods from Rayman 1 for the setting.

I refined the background even further for more details, and at this point I decided against inking it and instead coloring it lineless.

I inked the characters then laid out the background flats for later.

Went into more detail and shading in the background, then laid out the flat colors for the characters.

Then finally I added the last bit of details to the characters and background with shading, lighting, and text on the book.

Here’s a video of the process!

This illustration has been one of my most detailed ones so far, I’m very happy with it!

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illustration process

Illustration Process- Pony Crashers

Castel Crasher knight riding pink my little pony

In 2019 it was announced that one of my all time favorite beat-em-up game, Castle Crashers, would be coming over to the Switch. To celebrate, I decided to draw one of my favorite characters to use in the game, Pink Knight, along with another favorite from an equally colorful but considerably less violent show, Pinkie Pie.

In Castle Crashers you’ll come by animals that you can ride in certain levels, so drawing Pink Knight riding into battle on Pinkie was an easy choice.

I started by finding a good pose for Pinkie. She’d be the type to happily bounce into a battlefield, so I needed something energetic.

I went with the second pose and roughly sketched where Pink Knight would sit, along with his signature lollipop weapon.

I refined the sketch and added two hamsters Pink Knight uses in his attacks. I thought about adding a defeated enemy they’d be prancing away from, but ended up ditching the idea.

Inks
Flat Colors
Castel Crasher knight riding pink my little pony

I colored the lines to match the style of My Little Pony and added Pink Knight’s rainbow power, along with the sparkles and hearts that come with it. One colorful background later and it was finished!

Castle Crashers means a lot to me and this still stands as another one of my favorite pieces. I started doing a series of these with the other knights in the game that I’ll have to get back to later.

Thank you for reading!

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illustration process

Illustration Process- Sonic X Ocarina of Time

Sonic in Link costume illustration by Lauren Mays

In 2017 Sonic and The Legend of Zelda had an interesting crossover, and I wanted to draw a picture inspired by that. However, I never ended up finishing it and eventually gave up on it. Jump ahead to 2020 and the idea came back to me again, this time with me fully committing.

First, I had to figure out which of the Zelda games I wanted to combine with Sonic. My original idea was with Twilight Princess (which I’ll still get to eventually), but after thinking it over I decided to go with Ocarnia of Time for inspiration.

I took time to look at some of the game’s art to figure out the type of mood I wanted the picture to have. Then, after gathering as many references I could find of Sonic’s outfit from the official crossover, I got started.

I had the image in my mind of wandering into the forest and encountering with the fairy that travels with you in the game, Navi. I wanted to really capture that feeling of wonder, with Sonic reaching out in curiosity,

Next I refined the detail in the sketch as much as I could. I pulled out a lot of forest references for this one. Also tried to get the most out of the references of Sonic’s outfit.

Detailed Inking
Flats
Basic Shadows
Basic Lighting
Overlay + Effects

After adding extra effects and details, I came away with an illustration I’m still very happy with now! I’ll have to revisit this crossover combination again one day, and maybe finally tackle that Twilight Princess picture.

Thank you for reading!