Why Painting Leather Is a Nightmare Yet Incredibly Useful For Your Skills! - Spy Process & File

Hey everyone,

Here is the process video, file, and brief insights of SPY, my latest illustration. These kinds of articles are often split into two parts: the concept, where I share the idea behind the piece, and the execution, where I explain the technical aspects like shapes, colors, and value choices. I hope you find this useful; have a great read.

Concept

The main inspiration for this piece came from a blue bag with a spiderweb. I thought about making a bag-like character, but instead, I decided to use the actual spider. I was curious if a blue spider actually existed and turns out there's a little one called a Peacock Spider, a very fascinating creature.

The question around this subject was what kind of profession or action this character will share with the spider. I thought about characteristics of the animal like hunting, webs, multiple eyes, and legs, and eventually, the idea of a spy made sense to me. Spies' jobs are to watch and gather information going unnoticed; in movies, they often get into action. Truth is, I know nothing about spies, so I just basically used the spy stereotype to bring a familiar tone to the character.

Also, this is not a new idea, but at the time, I had not tried a spy since I was not sure how to make its outfit interesting. The spy stereotype in my head dresses either elegantly and soberly or very casually. In my opinion, a spy should not draw attention to themselves, but this time it was well justified based on the characteristics of the spider. I just replaced the black coat with a black and blue striped jacket. It's true that the character does not look low profile at all, but I chose to sacrifice my logic in order to resemble the spider's pattern. The list looked like this:

• Color: blue, white, and black
• Ref: Spider
• Action: Spy finishing its work, maybe after a tough situation, pulling a body with a spider web.
• Costume: Black/blue semi-formal outfit, white hair, black gloves, jacket on top to resemble four arms, holding a gun with a silencer, cyberpunk vibe.

Execution

One of the reasons why I liked this idea was that I could use the shape of the jacket as an excuse to justify two extra arms on the character. I thought it was an interesting way to connect both the character and the spider. It's true that I'm still missing some legs, but the idea was clear.

In principle, she would be simply holding a gun and having a resting face, but while drawing, I noticed this was too boring. So instead of pulling a more complex composition or idea that justified a more dramatic facial expression, I shifted her hand towards her face, seeming like she is trying to fix her hair or just scratch her cheek. This is a slight change that might as well go unnoticed, but I thought it was a nice touch, literally.

The color distribution was based on variations of blue, black, and a bit of white. In the first hour and a half, you will see how I chose different tones of blue and black mostly to make body parts distinctive from one another. When trying a similar approach, if the color would be the same, I recommend you to focus on contrast between some shapes you consider key in the design, not only to add interesting variations of tones but also to make a distinction between costume props. At the end, I added a little bit of orange in some parts of the outfit just to bring a complementary color that balances the amount of blue around everything.

The big protagonist in this illustration was her pants. While searching for references, I found a few pictures of leather pants that sold me this idea. 

The unique way leather reflects light presents a fascinating challenge in rendering. This characteristic allows the addition of multiple colors on its dark surface, creating visually interesting depth. When bright tones reflect on leather, they often transform into desaturated, darker versions of the reflecting object. The reflected shapes are also distorted, defined by the leather's form, whether it's a jacket, pants, or a bag. This contrast of shadows, highlights, and distorted reflections makes capturing leather complex, yet rewarding if done right.

Conclusion

When I'm creating, I look for excuses to look at what I'll create. During the concept phase, I look for interesting combinations of ideas, narratives, or visual characteristics like how light behaves on top of surfaces. Leather-like surfaces or water tends to reflect light in complex ways, making the whole visual experience, in my opinion, attractive. This is one of many ways you can challenge yourself while practicing values.

Thank you again for your support!