DIGITAL PAINTING
13
HIGHLIGHT THE HORNS
Horns are a focal point of any dragon, so we must pay careful attention to them.
As humans, we’re naturally programmed to seek out the pointy dangerous bits in the
world around us so that we may protect ourselves, and likewise, our eyes will be drawn to
the horns of this creature before anything else. Using a very small light brush, we’re going
to imply the highlights from the lantern and how they enter the creases on the dragon’s
horns. To give it more depth, we’re going to take a large, softer Airbrush and Eyedropper to
select a colour from the dungeon’s interior to reflect onto the bottom of the horns.14
ADD THE SMALLER DETAILS
This dungeon is very old and worn out. We want to bring out the wear factor in the walls by
creating thunder-like streaks of cracks along the surfaces – be careful not to distract from the dragon!
Lightly imply, don’t overpower. We’ll be able to fill in these creases later with some light to help them pop
more. Using a finer brush, we will make work of the small nicks and scratches on the swords, chains and
skulls – remember that this isn’t a glamorous environment, make it reflect that – add some dirt and grime
while you’re at it.IT’S ALIVE!
WITH OUR BASES DOWN, LET’S RENDER THIS OUT TO COMPLETIONSHAPE LANGUAGE
Though it’s a rather extensive topic of its own, it’s
good practice to convey a character’s personality
from the shapes assigned to it. Square-like
characters are sturdy and reliable, circular
characters are round and cute. Triangles, with
their pointy ends that we don’t want to prick our
finger on, are often depicted as villainous
characters. The list of reasons for each shape is
pretty varied and there are plenty of blends and
exceptions to the rule, but we should try to be
conscious of the forms we’re using and how they
describe our character without the crutch of
words. Let the drawing speak for itself.12
PAINT THE BACKGROUND
For the dungeon floor, walls, and materials we’re going to paint
according to our lantern’s light source again. There isn’t much sense in
creating a mask for all these elements, as we did with the Hydra,
because they’re not very large or prominent. Instead just use a Soft
Airbrush to reflect the dungeon’s tones and hues onto the subjects and
the wall’s bricks. Be sure to treat metallic surfaces differently than skulls
and vice versa, they each will reflect light in a different way.