For the first week, we were tasked with creating our own concept or environment within Photoshop. The immediate question is what I’m going to come up with. Granted that my skill with art as a whole isn’t my strong suit I made use of my own personal drawing tablet to get the most out of my ability. Rather than spending too much time worrying about genres and subgenres I decided to swiftly put a pen to page to explore with different ideas.
Step 1:
I immediately had this idea in my head of a gothic crown, spiked and jagged as if it was uncomfortable to even wear. Therefore I began with the general outline which I’m able to expand upon and detail. As it’s a crown I used the Symmetry tool to be able to effectively draw each half perfectly even.
Step 2:
With the template I’ve drawn out blank, I moved onto adding the finer details of the crown which entails gems both in the centre of the crown and at each side paired with etchings that compliment the stones that are encrusted. After this I used the Fill tool to at least grasp a general idea of the overall colour scheme I’m going for.
Step 3:
Following up from this I both coloured and polished the gemstones using a thick, low opacity brush as well as a brighter tone of the base colour to add a shining effect to represent the withstanding durability of the crown despite the scratches I added to the front using a thin brush with alternating lengths and widths.
Step 4:
Subsequent to the last step, I had a moment to realise that this crown was rather lacklustre on it’s own. Initially I only had the idea to seat the crown atop a skull, however I thought why not instead go for a more undead theme and drew out a template of a visually menacing face and face shape beneath the crown.
Step 5:
Even after coming up with the general idea for the head I developed it even further by using similar methods as to ones I used prior such as the Symmetry tool and varied colour shades to detail the eyes and hollow nose. I noticed that the green colour I’ve been using contrasts the dull and bleak colours I’ve used for both the skin and material of the crown itself, therefore I tinted the irises with the very same to convey the theoretical power of this crown I started with. I experimented multiple times with different mouth styles but eventually decided to just stick without the mouth to further express the cunning effect of the furrowed brows. Shown below is the final piece as well as the alternate mouth types I scrapped.
Conclusion and Reflection
Despite my initial doubts on being able to produce something of quality I feel as if I really exercised both my artistic potential and my knowledge of Photoshop to efficiently improvise and develop a piece straight from the mind. However the things I would improve is perhaps a more broad variation of detailing choices, something like scars or torn flesh on the face – but that is something to take note of and improve in the future.