GameArt

The Necromancer is the first character I played in Diablo II and wanted to do him justice. This one is obviously animating some of the local terra firma into a Clay Golem.

Starting with a sketch, I scanned it and opened the scan in Painter 6, which was fresh out of the box. I have almost no experience with PhotoShop, so I like the way Painter emulates natural media. Unfortunately, I don't know how to paint, either, so I had to fake it and am actually looking for some better techniques.

Here's how I did it, though. The background sky is large sky watercolor method with blues and grays with some yellows, oranges and reds. I used a variant of the camelhair round brush (a gauche technique brush I got from Painter 6 Wow!) for the background and, frankly, the rest of it. I put down the mid-tones then the shadows and highlights in multiple layers (because I wasn't satisfied with the first several). Sometimes the opacity was at 100% and sometimes in the mid-range. For parts of the armor and a good majority of the sky, I used a grainy brush and allowed the texture to take care of some of the detail for me. The Wacom tablet was essential, as was the undo command. The new way in which Painter 6 handles layers is much better than the floaters (an unfortunate term for the potty-minded among us) in previous versions, which I gave up on almost immediately after purchase, years ago. It was very nice to be able to work on the background after I'd put in the figures (yes, I also put my socks on after my shoes) and not disturb them.

Then it went into PhotoShop for the only special effect. I took the cowardly way out and put in a lens flare. I admit it and I've repented. There is no flash photography allowed in Diablo II.

So that's it. It's pretty straightforward and I really need some tricks and tips for doing this without all of the agonizing over every detail.