Usually, when it’s about personal work, I never know the final result, I don’t exactly know where I’m heading. During this step, my imagination is working, free without limits. I begin almost every time with traditional methods. In this example, I use poster colors by the brand “NICKER” (used in animation for scenery drawing) and dry pastel. I try to keep the “freshness” of the first draft by trying to set an atmosphere  (nocturnal in this case) and by trying to get art effects that will serve me afterwards.

First, I put together different elements and little by little the subject  become clear. I don’t hesitate to cover large areas to see more clearly into it. Colors are from a traditional base, I try to keep things in order by choosing colors from the same family (blue/green/purple).

At this moment, I start to pay attention to details. The detail is not necessary everywhere, it depends on the subject. Here, I scanned a piece of roc painting that I turned into black and white and embed in   “soft light” via  fusion modes of my previous base. Evidemment un travail sur le masque est nécessaire afin de fondre au mieux l’intégration. Une deuxième passe de peinture fut nécessaire pour changer les teintes, apporter du petit détail et quelques effets atmosphériques (légère brume au fond). Generally, I focus on a specific area of the painting because it allows me to define the level of quality for the all.

At this stage of work, I try to analyse the image problems, in this example, there was a lack of contrast. What needs to be emphasized is immersed in the light, hence the idea to darken the sky and highlight the jungle in the background. After a few colorimetrics patches via  color calques of solid color in soft light, I try to  bring some grain to the sky  via once again a traditional painting. De larges coups de brosses à la gouache sur du carton (en chargeant peu le pinceau) m’ont permis d’avoir une texture intéressante à incruster dans le ciel (en produit pour assombrir). L’utilisation de scan d’éléments traditionnels permet de s’affranchir du coté “artificiel” du numérique. Des réglages de brushes via des textures et autres effets permettent également de s’en éloigner mais en ce qui me concerne j’aime faire les choses manuellement et pas juste bouger des réglettes.

Final step and maybe the longest, no specific recipe here, only personal skills matters. Notice some effects that I use as the directional blur (for the lanterns) or the gaussian blur for the forefront. It’s important to distinguish the differents plans of a composition by the light, the work on the color but also by specific effects (clearness, blur). For the steps at the forefront, I decided to combine both. Last step, I also include a paper grain texture in incrustation to give a “traditional suport” effect. Moreover, if your work is to be printed, you’ll get good results.