Finished working on my guard concept just last week. i was experimenting with a different painting style this time round. the idea behind the colours is to apply them quickly without sacrificing the detail in my line art.
Whenever i do lines, i have a tendency to do the shading with it, adding more detail. this is all fine and dandy...until i start colouring. a lot of the work i put into the shading through my lines is undone the moment i add values through colour. the two then start working against each other to the point of canceling the other out. well, in some respects. that's why i'm always concerned when doing detailed lineart and painting it after. but no more! in a way :p
The idea is simple: colour with base colours and quick shadow/highlight passes (i did mine in a few minutes), then bleach the crap outta it by adjusting the curves and exposure levels. exposure in photoshop made the whites brighter while messing with curves created this nice strong contrast of dark values right next to the hightlights. i then added a sepia wash over the whole thing cos i didn't like the colours at the time, and lightly painted the blues in. the graininess is cos i used a filter...not sure which one tho. didn't turn out too bad, but it's definitely something i'm willing to develop.
Here's the original line art and some early concept sketches:
Dude, I friggin' love this design... that helmet! If it was me designing this, I'd make the sword shorter, if he's primarily an archer. I like the sword by the way; it reminds me a bit of a Roman soldier's gladius, the no-nonsense thrusting sword.
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