Reaper WIP, background recommendations welcome!

#1

I’ve gotten up to about the point where I want to do a background. I probably should have planned it first, but I went straight to coloring. I was thinking of a slightly hellish kind of rocky setting where imps and evil eyes are coming out of the shadows.

Background character info: The netherworld is inbetween heaven and hell, the afterlife so to speak. The grim reaper is in charge of taking souls and bringing them to judgement but since he is not omnipresent, he finds chosen mortals to be his helpers which he resurrects after they die. This is the latest girl that the reaper has chosen. She was an office lady that got stabbed to death in a back alley. The reaper then bound her soul to the hourglass medallion and gave her the power of a reaper along with her choice of weapons and armor. The reapers do not go without resistance as imps, demons and other foul creatures would like to dine on the souls along with reaper flesh. In this scene, she’s surrounded by evil beings as she transports a soulchest filled with hundreds of souls which she must protect.

I know I’m not pro yet, but any C&C is welcome and I’d especially like background suggestions.

#2

Any comments, advice for a growing artist?

#3

Advice for a growing artist eh? Well I suppose I could give it a shot.
For what you already have, I like the design. I’m not sure how well the texture on the scythe fits in with the rest of it, since that’s the only place you have a specific testure. Also, It might help to put in a little more line variation. You’ve already got some, but pushing in further might help. About a background, it’s hard to say. If you’re going with a bunch of monster type creatures, I easily picture a bunch of cartoony deamons around her in a loose ring,ready to pounce, but none of them fully in the frame. It’s probably close to what you already have in mind. I think the lighting might be a bit tricky, since you’ve already established all your color on her. That is, unless you don’t mind messing with the origional image again.
That’s it for my little spiel. Sorry it’s not more helpful, but post a background idea and ask again.

#4

Hopefully, this will be the last picture I hand ink soon as my Wacom tablet will be here shortly. Line variation should be easy to achieve with that. I don’t know if you noticed but there’s also a metal texture on the box. I’ve been influenced by Masumune Shirow who does wonderful hybrids using texture in anime style art. I really liked that idea. I suppose I could have done more of a Cell shaded shadow on the scythe. I might go back and do that. I’m starting to mix cell shading and airbrushed effects and textures into the same peice and its tricky finding that balance. I think you are right on with the background. That was exactly what I was thinking. Fortunately, since she’s cell shaded, it takes me 2 seconds to swap colors. So If I need to adjust any colors to blend with the background its no problem. I need to add secondary reflective color highlights as well after I do the background.

Thanks for the comments its appreciated!

Anybody else have any comments before I start on the background?

#5

I followed the link from your “over his head” link. Since you’re outsourcing the work I don’t know if you still need crits, but thought I’d give give a few tips.

Since this piece will be printed you should find out the print size. Draw LARGER (in proportion to the final size) then size it down. Unless you’re using a vector art program like Illustrator, all your edges will look fuzzy if you draw small and upsize your image afterward. Make sure you’re working at a resolution of 300dpi or better. I learned from entering the CGChallenges that there’s a difference between an image looking good on the web and that same image looking good in print.

Plan out your final composition (every element in the picture) and color scheme before you begin on the finish work. Since the movie poster is used, like the preview, for creating interest you need to plan it out carefully. Bang out a few thumbnail drawings trying different scenes, each from a different perspective, to see which is the most compelling. IMO it’s a bad choice to use an anime style drawing to advertise a live action film since it will lead many to believe they’re going to see a cartoon. :surprised

Hope that helps, and good luck!

#6

I do appreciate the comments, however, this is not the movie poster, this is something I was just doing for fun.

As far as resolution is concerned, this is a 600 dpi image. In the future, I think I’m going to be using my Wacom to ink so line theory is going to change for me. Previously I would ink things by hand on 8.5x11 high quality printer paper, then scan it at a high dpi, non anti-aliased so I get the gritty black lines. But at 600 dpi, the stairstep is not visable and you get nice smooth lines. Image quality does suffer as I’ve blown up my stuff to 4’ wide before but it still looks pretty decent. I do graphic tech support for a living so this stuff is what I deal with daily. I have solvent wide format printers at work too.

I do totally agree with you about using anime style art for the movie poster. I told the director that with my style, If I went full anime on the cover, people wouldn’t think it was a horror movie and that it was some anime instead. Would just lead to confusion. Definitely a bad idea.

#7

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