The Making of "Fiery Mountains"

Time for another digital painting walkthru, tutorial, how I work, painting method or how to paint a fantasy scene. Whichever one you want to call it is fine by me.

I wanted to do one of those fantasy scenes with the warrior looking properly heroic with the scantily clad woman hanging on his leg. Of course, I wanted to do it with a little twist. My hero wouldn't be the classic hero. He'd be the offspring of a rare union of elf and dwarf. He'd be taller than a dwarf, but much shorter than an elf. He'd be more slender than a dwarf.

This piece is being drawn and painted with Corel Painter 9.5.

After a few sketches, I settled on the poses.

I chose a color scheme for the background and laid it in with a custom brush. I like this brush because of it's ability to pick-up and mix color.

Now, I use a blending brush to blend the colors and remove the texture.

I start to indicate the mountains in the distance. I'm also determining the main direction of the light source. At this point, I'm starting to reconsider the foreground colors and its' shape.

I decide to place the figures on an outcropping. I add pixels to the left and bottom so that image elements won't look crowded. I work in the basic shape for the the new foreground and extend the background.
Next I block in the shadows and lights for the figures. At this point, I think I have all of the main elements in place. The only thing left is the details. Now I'll spend some time in my library, looking at fantasy scenes and characters to help spark some design ideas for my characters garb. I'll also be looking at some mountain references. I'll probably do some sketches and then get back to the painting later in the week when I have a block of time to throw at it.