Torsten Hewson
patreon
Constructing a Cover.
🕑 Added 2021-03-08 16:00:54 +0000 UTCLike all good things, a cover begins with an idea…. And the participation of somebody much more talented than you.
Full disclosure: This cover was sponsored by one of my patreons, Terrorfloof. This image is thanks to his generosity
I had a very strong image for what I wanted for my cover. I could “see” it near perfectly. But lets just say my art skills were spectacularly lacking. It started with a crappy MS paint pic, and some pictures off the internet for poses.
Enter Tsuu.
We started with some sketches. Starting to work out the character's appearance and composition. Big D started out kinda chubby, and a bit mean looking. But with good communication, we were able to refine the idea extremely quickly. If you ever wonder why art can cost so much--don’t. It requires a lot of communication, feedback, revision… and oftentimes complete redraws that can take hours.
With what I wanted communicated, Tsu pushed forward and created the first sketch. I absolutely love this sketch. Tsuu’s lineart is absolutely amazing. Not to say anything of hers is bad, but her lineart just has some quality to it that I absolutely adore. This is where things started coming together.
Next, came the clean lines, and render, but we had a bit of a shift on the face. We agreed that it didn’t look quite right. So we refined again.
A lot better on the next one, eh? This is also Tsu’s first time trying this method of colouring. I wanted a more almost watercolour style for the colouring.
Approaching the end right here. With the addition of the shadows I think it really brings everything together.
We cleaned up the shadows at the bottom, as they looked a bit too busy, and we have what I think will be the final result!
We also have one joke one featuring an earth spirit, inspired by the art of tomislav.
A special thanks to Terrorfloof for his sponsorship, Tsurot, for the art, White Samurai, for his help. Things are moving faster than I ever thought possible.
Comments
Bobby B.
Neet, always pictured his shovel as a T handle live from that one anime... with the shovel guy... and the talking hammer ball thing
Mani
Awesome stuff man! Honestly i think the ms paint version is my favorite, really captures the essence of the story and world y'know =P I didn't think anything of the tree shadow before people started pointing it out and now i can't unsee it
LordDark
Also like how the rock shows up.
LordDark
I think the one without the tree shadow looks the best. Throws me off that you cant see trees anywhere nearby. Also like the Gaia peace easter egg.
Keifru
Really cool to have the iterations from idea to final. The only thing that throws me off a bit is the...not pure-shadow per se, but that sort of light shadow 'filtered through a large tree foliage' half-shadow kinda thing under Jin. He doesn't appear to be near any trees, nor any bushes close by. Still, I like the aesthetic of it, and other than that bit of reality glitching, the light/shadows are gorgeous. I feel like the cover reflects the story of book 1 quite well.
