Tantum IV "Interloper"
The Silhouette Phase
This project began as an exploration of painting techniques for hard-surface concept art painting, and is a perfect example of my concept art creation process. The first stage of my process begins with silhouettes; the application of shape marquee tools and filling with color to produce interesting shapes that could influence the form of the final piece.
The goal of this individual piece was to create a concept piece of an interceptor spaceship, designed to latch onto it's target and inject something into the enemy hull, whether that be people, gas, etc.
I created 6 total silhouettes to get an idea of what I wanted to go for.
The Sketch Phase
At this phase, I select one of the silhouettes to carry to the next phase, sketching out the individual pieces and creating the general outline of where everything sits. It is in this stage that I begin to look at three main "sections" of a design: the Panels (external plates of metal or flat surfaces), the Guts (internal machinery), and the Nuts and Bolts (any screws or nuts attached to the externals).
Panels
Most technology has a panel layer; whatever holds the thing together, and protects it and/or makes it able to be touched without messing up the wiring on the internals. The panels are where we get to establish the hard edges of the object. The Panel Phase is the easiest to make look good, and I make use of the polygon marquee tool for this section.
Guts
The internals of a machine are the second part I put in; I try not to add TOO much detail to the internals, as while I want to get the shapes necessary for the object's function in, I find that small detailed guts are more effectively included using photo texturing (a later stage in the process). It is important to think about how an object might be engineered when working in this phase.
Shiny Metal and Nuts/Bolts
With the metal and nuts/bolts phase, I introduce some brightly colored sections to give it a more solid metal feeling. Metal rings are fun to include on pieces, and beyond that, the introduction of bolts to the piece make it truly feel real. The use of Photoshop's Stamp tool makes the creation of bolts far easier.
Glass
This is a quick section; thinking about how transparent I want the glass to be. For this piece, I wanted it to give the same feeling as Master Chief's visor from Halo, so I gave it that angular, opaque look.
Photo Texturing
This is where we start to get into the advanced, professional workflow phases. Using the soft light blending mode on the layers and a mask over the object, I introduce photo textures that create variation in the textures on the piece. This is where we get to leverage the intricacy of real machinery in photographs to make our machinery look more advanced, without having to dedicate hours to painstakingly construct the internals. It's always good to Paint Daubes and Blur the internals so that you're forced to introduce the hand of the artist, but in general this is a method that can be used with or without that step so long as the piece you're referencing is open-source.
Paneling (not to be confused with Panels)
Ships specifically often have interlocking panels to keep the vacuum of space from entering. Even oceanic ships have paneling like this. So lets introduce some paneling textures onto the image, leveraging our photo texturing techniques again to create more interesting color variations and giving the allusion of interlocking panels.
Lighting and Finish
At this final stage, I add a lighting gradient to the piece and combine all layers, cleaning up any sections that have rough edges or that need additional detail added. By this point I am satisfied with the piece, and am ready to have it reviewed.