Expert advice | Your questions answered
Answer
PJ replies
The simple solution to this
question is to think of clothing
as another layer of skin over
the body. So the first step is to
have a good understanding (okay, simple-
ish) of the character’s basic anatomy that
you wish to convey.
In the case of our superhero The Judge,
his physique is granite-like but not “cut”. In
other words, he’s muscular but unless he’s
exerting himself in some manner, it’s more
relaxed muscle.
Once I’ve roughed out the figure that
I want to draw, I begin to add the fabric
around that. Often that means taking into
account the kind of material the outfit is
made from, as well as any design elements
on the suit. While most superhero outfits
don’t tend to wrinkle, it can add a note of
realism to an outfit. And as a simple rule,
you’d expect to see wrinkles around the
parts of the body that are compressed
together. Of course, where wrinkles are
compressing there’s usually a corresponding
stretching taking place opposite that
compression, and how much wrinkling
occurs depends on the kind of material.
Once I’ve established the outline
of the material and where it’s folded,
I can begin the rendering process.
Rendering depends largely on what
the material and colour of the fabric is,
as well as the environment the character
finds themselves in. Leather material
EVERYTHING IS STORYTELLING
Rendering the fabric is a
great opportunity to get in
a lot of micro-storytelling.
The folds can do the job of
expressing movement and
speed, and the shadows can carry a lot of
dramatic weight. Don’t let realism weigh down
your decision-making process.Artist’s
secretEven in this sketch, you can see that the outfit sits on
top of the body rather than being vacuum sealed to it.Light feathering
moulded to the shape of
the underlying muscle,
as well as creases, help
show that he’s wearing
clothing rather than
body paint.1
Use the answers to your questions
to create a theme for your design. In
this case I want it to be an exploration ship,
so my primary focus is mobility. The wings
of a pine beetle, dragonfly tails and the
segmentation of a beetle fly help give this
vehicle a more all-terrain feeling.
3
When figuring out the details, avoid
making the entire ship too complex.
If every square inch is exploding with
information, the effect is like TV static, and
it all just blends together. Conversely, if the
whole ship is just one generic shape, there
isn’t much to entertain the viewer with.2
To avoid making a ship that could
be mistaken for an actual insect, use
your animal reference to lay out the initial
shapes and then look to jet fighters, Mars
rovers and other artificial craft as you flesh
out the components, to introduce that
unnatural, this-was-built-not-grown touch.Step-by-step: From bug to buggy
Question
How do I show a character’s musculature
underneath a superhero outfit?
Katie Phelps, England
takes a lot of deep shadows
and specular highlights, while
fabric will have a lot of subtle
feathering. When rendering,
though, it’s important to follow
the curves of the underlying
muscle structure, so even
where contrasting fabrics
meet there’s a consistency
on display.