The making ofThe
Wizard
The Wizard This artwork is a little different in working style to my previous works. I
always try to find other simple and less time consuming methods to get my job done. Time is very important in every process and job that you do. I work in the games industry and it’s probably the deadlines and strict terms that have forced me to find better ways to complete my schedules. I tried here to follow a much more classic approach than I have used before. My trick is not to use so many selections, textures and strict lines, but to paint with a simple brush, just like painters do with oils upon canvas. The 2D program that you use doesn’t matter too much - some offer you nice brushes and tools, but you can always find these on the web. Painter, for example, has more natural brushes which are closest to what we use in conventional work, but I prefer Photoshop for a much more common interface and also for an easy way to handle the layers and the way they are blended and interlink. It’s all about whether you prefer something more pictorial or something more rigid and well-shaped. Normally, I don’t use weird brushes - only the simple ones from Photoshop CS (Fig.01) - but I use many selections from different texture galleries, whether they are masks or simple pictures, with a high level of contrast which allow you to easily select areas, colours or shapes. My favourites are the pictures with painted metal, from which you can get some amazing selections from scratches and dirt. For example, in the corner of Fig.02, I didn’t use a brush but instead used a selection with colour range to copy and paste some details into my work from some texture masks. I thought this way would match better, as you get more differing details than using pre-made brushes (Fig.03).
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issue 011 November 2006