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cobaltplasma β The Shadowknight
#beast #ccg #creature #dark #digital #dualblade #fantasy #ghost #glaive #horror #illustration #knight #monster #shade #shadowknight #specter #sword #tcg #tentacles #warrior #wraith #conceptart
Published: 2015-07-10 06:13:19 +0000 UTC; Views: 31658; Favourites: 613; Downloads: 282
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Description
Last creature to illustrate for ver1.00 of my game, now it's off to finish locations, actions, and gear. I debated about giving it more visual flare with effects but I liked the dead feel of it so decided against my desire to see flashy, fiery things lol.It's pretty exciting being this close to finishing up something I've wanted to make for, like, literally 20 years now. Β So long as I don't have a meteor fall on my head or a sharknado spawn on my house I'm gonna get this thing done
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Comments: 32
This gives me chills. Is it ok if i use this in my Dungeons and Dragons campaign i am about to run?
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Sure so long as it's for personal use only as it's already slated for a commercial release
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Thank you very much ^_^
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Thank you very much ^_^
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do you have a you tube or facebook / twitter account or something, because I've recently stumbled across you and love your style and all the art you've put on here.Β
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Thank you very much 
Twitter : Cobaltplasma : I post most here, various things, WIPs
Facebook : Art of Aaron Nakahara : Curated more than my DA account, I talk a bit more there.
YouTube : Very little here but I plan on uploading more video captures and eventually tutorials and commentaries, once I get a new computer hehe.
Thank you again
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Thank you very much ^_^
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That's a pretty badass and unique concept for a knight. The tattered cloth and tentacles for legs just adds to the dark feel of the character. I wish you luck on your dream!!
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Thank you very much
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Awesome!! I'll be waiting!!
Just curious, how is it like doing freelance work? Is it pretty difficult since your trying to create something from someone's imagination?
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It's enjoyable, one thing I like about it is actually the part where I'm trying to make someone else's ideas material because it gives me a point of view that I did not have before taking on the piece
Freelance is something I think aspiring artists should try their hand at, but don't sell yourself short on your wage and rate. Β It's great to get your name out there, but there are ways to do that without slaving for someone else at below minimum wage so I'd always be wary of someone who asks for too much while offering you too little in compensation.Β
All and all, I do like it a lot, just make sure you put a proper value on your time and try to find clients who will respect that. Β Once you don't have to worry about that as much it makes it exponentially easier to iterate on someone else's imagination
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That's very interesting and I found your answer to be wonderful and inspiring! XDΒ
Art for me is just a hobby but when my friends ask for me to draw stuff, I usually just decline and say that my skills aren't sufficient and I wouldn't be able to draw something to their liking. But I see your point about taking someones idea as a challenge to improve your skills and looking at different points of view. Other than improving your skills, I think it's also a great confidence booster.
I like your positive attitude and the high level of professionalism that you have towards your work. Thank you for sharing!!
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It's like Goku from Dragonball, you gotta have fun when you rise to the challenge
Also think of it like this: The more work you do in general, even if it's outside your expertise, the more experience you'll be able to pool from for future projects.
Best of luck to you and feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions ^_^
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+1
really wish you luck with your 20 years dream
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Thank you very much
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woooah I absolutely adore the painterly style you have going in this piece. You definitely show a mastery of skill. : D
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I'm fakin' the funk, the master of faux-ness lol. Β Thank you for the very kind words
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The cloth looks VERY realistic and nice. May I ask, in short, what process you take for that effect? Just start with a black, scattered back ground and lay over a lighter layer and go ape shit with an erase, then blend/color theory/shade? Or is that just over-complicating it?
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It's a couple of relatively easy things, hopefully this isn't too long of an explanation though hehe.
First what I do is I set up a new layer where I'm going to paint just the main form, in this case the figure of the knight, and then I go in with full opacity brushstrokes to set up the general form. Β Once in a while I'll make another layer and start pushing highlights/shadows a *little bit* using brushstrokes and the smudge tool to create some softness, then merging it down; this lets me keep the general form of the underpainting without warping it with smudges.
I sometimes forget (lol) but when I remember to I try to keep light sources in mind and try to adjust my rendering to reflect that when I'm working on my underpainting, but if not I try to compensate for it when I layer in the textures and other stuff I want to fiddle with.
The tattered look for the cloth in this case got some help with some random textures I incorporated into the figure, just bits of metal/rust/concrete that I've snapped photos of which I paste into another layer and set it to Overlay at about 70%. For just texture I'll drop the saturation really low so I don't get much color incorporated from the image I'm using and then make another layer or two where I'll play with Overlay/Color Burn/etc. to add in hue and contrast and tint.
When it's all said and done and things feel 'right', I'll compress the entire image and then make one more layer over that, set to Normal, where I'll clean up edges/paint in bits with 100% normal brushstrokes. Β An example of this on The Shadowknight is where his shield bumps against his left torso, right next to the tower in the background, that blue was very muddled and hard to read so I went in and painted over that to crisp it up. Β Same thing with various bits of cloth, if parts felt too high contrast then I'd get the eydropper tool and snag something a little less high or low and paint over those areas.
Hope this is of some help
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Wow, thank you so much! That definitely was very helpful! Can't wait for your next concept design! (I'm working on a few myself 
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Thanks, I'm glad it could be of some help
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