Today I have for you a look at the process and steps that went into a piece that is well overdue. I first shared the
Trandoshan Hunters with you back in June of 2015. These two space lizards were created for the Imperial Assault 2015 Summer Organized Play Kit as well as being the third time my art was used for this particular card. Let's have a look at the finished piece...
Trandoshan Hunter
Imperial Assault Summer Organized Play Kit
11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Original - SOLD
© 2015 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
Thumbnails are and will forever be the first step in the process. I shoot reference and work up some concepts based on the art order. Inevitably, I will get the bleed and padding wrong, so having the thumbnail stage allows for quick and easy readjustment as I move onto the final drawing. No matter how much bleed I give my thumbnails, no matter how close I think I am sticking to the templates, I never seem to get it right. Oh well... at least I think I get it pretty close. Here are how the final thumbnails turned out for this piece...
Trandoshan Hunter - Thumbnails
© 2015 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
So fierce! Look at those angry angry space lizards! To get in the spirit and mood of some feisty Trandoshans I shot a bunch of reference with the help of Dear Wife. I like to move around and get into the skin of my monsters before I start working on them. Getting in front of the camera allows me to work out the composition in real space and get all the details, lighting, and foreshortening worked out ahead of time. No matter how much I plan ahead before shooting reference we will always come up with better poses and elements when I shoot reference first. Here is but a few of the many reference images that went into this piece...
Trandoshan Hunter -Reference
Photos by Achsa Nute
Option 'C' of the thumbnails was picked by production and I was given the go ahead to move onto the final drawing... as long as I added some additional bleed to the piece... which turned into even more since I was painting this piece at a standard size which is larger the the dimensions this piece needed to be at. All that said, here is the final drawing for the Trandoshan Hunter...
Trandoshan Hunter
Imperial Assault Summer Organized Play Kit
17 x 14 - Pencil on paper
© 2015 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
The drawing was approved and I was all set to move onto the painting. For this piece I wanted to do something different from all the pieces I had been working on. Many of the pieces were either green or blue in overall color and temperature. I wanted to do something very different and a lot more red... or kind of pink. I wanted this piece to be warm in comparison to the cool feel many of my pieces have. Here is the painting coming together...
Trandoshan Hunter - Process progression
In just 17 easy steps you too can have a Trandoshan Hunter painting. Or not. Even though this was an early piece for me in the scheme of things it came together in a rather straight forward manor. There was a lot of pushing and pulling to get the image to be where I wanted it to be, but that is part of the process. I just kept at it and the piece took shape a little at a time. To make it easier to see the piece coming together, here is an animated progression of the painting...
Trandoshan Hunter - Animated process progression
No real horror stories on this one. The painting came together and was approved without revisions. Here again is the final painting and the card that it was used on...
Trandoshan Hunter
Imperial Assault Summer Organized Play Kit
11 x 14 - Acrylic and pencil on board
Original - SOLD
© 2015 Lucasfilm, Ltd. TM Lucasfilm, Ltd. Under license to Fantasy Flight Games
Trandoshan Hunter in handy dandy card form
That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...
