Fafhrdsketch - big process thread (will be adding to it as I go)

It began life as the pencil sketch in the previous post, then it got scanned and shopped. Began coloring process using a gradient map with three colors so I could manipulate the transition, as somebody in some tutorial said is vitally important. I can see that, yes. I also had to slap on more adjustment layers -  a Levels and a Hue/Sat.

Basically all I did here was paint the background semi-transparently. Oh wait - first I did some more adjustments to the colors. Going with Xia Taptara's advice to start @ around 30% opacity for sketching things in loosely, then switch to very opaque for main painting, and then back to nearly transparent toward the end for sweetening.

Mainly just sort-of covering up some of the pencil work with translucent layers of transition color. Keeping everything loose and rough - I want to try to keep the energy as long as I can. Man, starting with a pencil sketch was the shizzbomb, diggity!! The shadows are close enough to black, something I have so much trouble doing digitally. And the whole thing just vibrates with energy!

This is probably about as far as I'll go toward smoothing it all out - it's just a sketch.

Damn - what happened to his physique? I kinda like the black ants but they seem to be awfully blank and plain.

Hmm - the belt doesn't go with the pants, and the pants are drawing too much attention - too light in value and too much color to them. And I'm not liking the shoulder harness. 

Looks pretty contemporary - nothing about this says he's a barbarian. Although I always imagined since Fafhrd loves civilization and went to live in the big city that he sometimes wears city clothes. Should probably still have some brass bracelets and accoutrements of some kind. I think this is enough for this sketch though. Time to move on. And now the pants are blending into the background a little too much again. I think a few accents might be all they need. 

12 - 25

This is looking somewhat better - on the right track anyway now. It suddenly occurred to me - I can see how my conception for the whole body has changed thanks to my studies in gesture and anatomy Now I need to also including the pose and clothing (both were afterthoughts here - my concern was for Fafhrd's body shape). Need to conceive of it all at once. Must begin filling sketchpads with drawings of the characters.

lolwat - he's supposed to be more of a viking - not a celtic barbarian. Nehwon is not earth though. On top of that - geeze, what a scrawny looking bear tooth necklace!! 

Getting better. The leather club pants suit him better then the dockers. The standard medieval sword hilt is bugging me now though. I need to keep on drawing everything and learning how to stylize it all much better. Gradually this will all coalesce in my work into my own conception for Fafhrd and the Mouser. I need to familiarize myself more specifically with different shapes of the various muscles - their characters and proportions. Need to be able to visualize different types of muscles for different characters.