LOCO-MOTIVE Cover art process
Added 2021-08-19 17:04:11 +0000 UTCMaarten and I worked closely on the pose for the cover. I love to do this as it gets the most feedback and ensures he's happy with what he's going to get.
We went through a few different poses until Maarten sent me a drawing he made (third image). I love when commissioners do this. It really helps with the process and makes my life much easier! I drew over his drawing and slapped the text on.
We were both happy with this so I opened SFM to get that perfect reference (using SFM for ref of HL characters feels like cheating but it absolutely works). The only downside i see to it is that when I'm painting, its easy for me to get caught up in finessing with all the detail in the render and it feels like I'm just copying the render 1:1 which isn't the style I'm going for. TO combat this, after i get the colors and shading/lighting down, I'iIll close out the reference so I can let my knowledge and i guess "style" shine through.
