First off my initial sketch. There were other sketches of course, but this was the look I decided on. I wanted this demonic kind of character, but done in a way where it is just standing there gazing at you creepily. Next my color study done in Photoshop with a Cintiq. I do my color studies pretty loosely, but they do act as a guide for my final work in Illustrator. I wanted the piece to really feel lit from the flames.
After further picking my work apart, I realized I super hated the pose. It just wasn't right. I did a corrective sketch in PShop and printed it out so I could draw a new sketch by hand. I prefer drawing by hand. Old school. Here I added more skulls and some skeletal elements to the uniform. I love the tiny knee-high boots.
At the same time I was working on the border and card info (yeah...it's for a card game type thing). Using the old sketch I plotted out how I wanted the image to interact with the card border and did the final border and type in Illustrator.
Lastly, I take all the elements into Illustrator and begin my tedious process of digital painting with vectors. A lot of my fellow artists call me nuts for this techique, but it's actually very close to how I used to paint traditionally and I love cut paper stuff...call it a happy medium for me. The image on the left shows the wireframe mode of my Illustrator file. My final piece is on the right.
