GameArt

The Sauron is one of the races of creatures that will inhabit the upcoming Bard's Legacy game. I decided that an amalgamation of a humanoid, dinosaur and lizard would be fitting for this race. This is one of many creatures that will be in the game. Here is how I created the image.

First thing I did was to make a basic pencil sketch. I scanned the sketch and opened it in Photoshop. I cleaned it up a bit by increasing the "Brightness/ ontract" a bit.

I then created a new layer and set the layer to "Multiply". This allows me to see the original drawing through the paint. I use the "Paintbrush" tool with a solid brush set to 100% opacity to color the image with a base color. Everything I do in Photoshop is done with a mouse.

After the basic colors were done I used the Dodge and Burn tools set to about 20% - 30% opacity with a soft edged brush. These were used for the shadow and highlights.

For the weapons I used the paintbrush tool at 100% opacity and threw down a few colors. Basically I used a dark color a light color and medium tone color. After doing a rough painting with these colors I used the Smudge tool at 30% - 50% to blend them. You may want to experiment with this technique for best results.

For intricate detail like skin texture I blow the picture up about 500% and add small details with the Dodge, Burn and Paintbrush Tools. For the accessories on the creature I create those on a seperate layer using the same techiques that I mention above.

Now I add a background and smooth the edges. The background is done on a seperate layer. I carefully used the Blur and smudge tool with a small brush to smooth out any jags around the edges of the creature and to make the tale fade off in the background.

This image took about 4-5 hours and was done in Photoshop 5.5 with a mouse.