Evolution Of Art - Dracula X

[Zenobian_84]

Been an "artist" (am using that term very lightly) for over 5 years now. Nothing serious; no aspirations to go anywhere in life using it; just a hobby of mine I like to do from time to time. My friends think I'm pretty good, but I don't think so; but then again, that could be another story for another time.

 

Anywho, figure I'd post a "From Beginning to End" progression of the latest creation I'm working on (for myself, mostly). Decided to make an 11x17" poster of an old Castlevania game cover (Dracula X for SNES, to be exact) for my brother-in-law's Christmas present. He enjoys the old video game stuff like I do and is a pretty big Castlevania fan. Skip the next part if you don't care to learn about an old video game; or if you already know about it.

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Backstory :ack:

 

Anyone who remembers the 80's has to remember the first Nintendo system (NES) that came out; eventually a little game came out that made a lot of people take notice. It ran by the name "Castlevania" and was legendary for it's difficulty, and it's story about the Belmont clan fighting the evil that was Count Dracula and his minions from Transylvania. A bunch of sequels later, the game had cemented itself in people's hearts and memories. 1995 came and went, and the Super Nintendo received a port of a Castlevania game from Japan (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood) titled Castlevania: Dracula X. No idea why they decided to use the X moniker; but that's how it went. It continued the story of the Belmont clan fighting Dracula, yada yada; and this time it was up to a young man named Richter Belmont to stop the count. He was also tasked with finding his girlfriend, Annette; her "sister", Maria, and two other woman from the village who were abducted by the evil forces. Long story short, the game was pretty darn good. And it's also a good favorite of mine.

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Moving on; this is the progression in a 5(?) hour time-span from the beginning to where the piece currently is. Really need to work on getting a good camera too. :thwak:

 

First off, start with: Moon, bat, Dracula sketch, Richter sketch. :popcorn:

 

Next, move on to fleshing Richter out. Add details as needed, eventually turns into this.

 

Continue with the details, changing some things as needed. Richter is now 90% complete. :eek: Also, his hands are funky, but I was never good at illustrating hands; so it's a moot point.

 

Comparison shot of how everything is coming. Need to get crackin' on finishing his weapon, and everything else. Around 3 hours in by now; or pretty close to it (am not a quick artist by any means)

 

Hours later (because there wasn't a necessity to take photos of adding everything else) I made it to this stage; where the picture currently is. About 75% done, and just about ready for color. A few details still need to be finished and re-worked, but I'm pretty satisfied thus far. Still trying to decide on what medium to use for coloring though... :hmm:

 

Will post the finished results when I complete it. Hopefully shouldn't take too long; considering I'm not working on the Jeep much these days. :dunno:

[ftpiercecracker1]

Not bad, looking foward to the final product. :)

[Guest]

Moving along; few spots to touch up, but finished Richter a few days ago, thankfully. There's a few minor things I could have done better on, but I'm tired of nit-picking this. :shake:

 

Currently working on the background.

 

[Guest]

Continuing from where I left off.... first, some mood setting music. :popcorn:

 

 

Taking a step back, posting the progress before the last teaser. Coloring on Richter is coming along; first starting out with the base layer of color, then adding additonal levels.

 

(Lightest - Light - Darkest) AKA: Dynamic Shading (my own "term")

 

 

Next is the teaser image, where everything picks up again.

 

Moving along, start working on the sky. Was pretty up in the air as to how I wanted to color this; but ended up going for a "Midnight" approach. Started to do work on the forest behind Richter as well; as well as adding detail to Dracula.

 

 

Next; started working on the detail of the castle, specifically, the architecture. Added detail to the scene behind the "Castlevania" logo as well, coloring the mountains, and adding in the lake for a nice touch. Dracula was also finished up during this phase. Decided to throw in a lot more bats than I originally had flying away from the castle; a small, but nice touch.

 

 

Finally; finished the rock formation off in the background. First time doing anything really with rocks, so some mistakes were made, but nothing too detrimental.

 

 

All in all, around 25 hours (give or take an hour or two) involved in this piece. Should be posting up a high-res scan of the finished art sometime in the near future (the camera phone really doesn't do it any justice in the cloudy light). :cheers:

 

'Til next time. :thumbsup:

[Guest]

Hi-Res; neat.

 

[dakal]

wow i'm impressed.

 

i'm glad to see someone got what i'm missing.