Something that I have yet to try (until now) is to create one of my Monstrosities digitally. Drawing them up with the rougher pencil just seemed appropriate. But today I wanted to give a digital Monstrosity a shot. I used Clip Studio Paint on my 13″ Cintiq HD. I just went in like I normally do with the pencil function to sketch out shapes until I came up with something that I felt had potential. From there I started a new layer and used the pen brush to go over it. I like the stabilization feature for this. Keeps things nice and clean as well as speeds up my workflow. After that came a lot of experimenting. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep this one black and white or try out a color version. I went back and forth several times and ended up going for color. I used a limited palette and tried different effects. This is something I’m going to have to try a few more times until I hammer down a coloring style and workflow that really works for this type of theme.
I’m happy with the overall look of this new digital Monstrosity, but the color needs work. Being that I went in without even knowing if it would be color or black and white – I think that set me on an unknown course and hurt the end result.
I learned a lot from this, which is what I love about these illustrations/creatures. Each is a new leap in artistic challenges. Somewhere down the line I think this new digital color version could be the way to go with these. I’ll still work traditionally as well because I just love the feel and that medium really lends itself well to these creatures, but the digital realm has a lot of possibilities whirling around my head for these Monstrosities.
More to come. Stay tuned!
Josh Hagen 