Jedi Squaresketch + Process

A quick painted sketch for fun. For some reason it turned into something StarWars-adjacent (you can't fight it at times)

I did a bit of a break-up that I posted on networks. I'm copy/pasting it here as well for those who would be interested :)

✏️ PROCESS 👇

I sometimes get the question about my process, and rather than answering with words and to each person, I thought I could do it visually, in a public post. Maybe it can help those who are starting to paint with confidence : Even though we see a lot of it you don't need a perfect 3d render to start painting, it is actually easier to fix chaos, as you know what to solve.

I don't record myself in video because when I do I loose the freedom to feel, fail, change, drink coffee etc so it prevents me from being in the zone. But I do keep important steps as layers, from left to right = 1 to 6.

1️⃣ the first marks are voluntarely abstract and gestural. They sort of always look very odd like a rorschach test (means I went deep I guess.)

2️⃣ I figure out the subject (here a character, apparently). Still keeping any internal judgment for later.

3️⃣ I'm thinking I need a mass on the right to get some balance. I think in big contrast of light and warms vs cools.

4️⃣ Boy that is a lot of saturated colors that kill depth! I'm trying to tone it down and add some light effects with a round airbrush, you know, as this was a movie set. It ends up looking atmospheric but too undefined.

5️⃣ I spend too much time figuring out details of the head. I think about other guys in the background, for some reason with a different color lightsaber, an idea that will bug me to the end as it doesn't make sense narratively speaking. I feel like the architecture is going nowhere, I hate it, so I'll change it.

6️⃣ I look at my first layers and remind myself I initially wanted to have a more painterly texture, so I abandon the airbrush for a grittier flatter brush. It allows me to not dilute all the values and get more structural with the architecture, that I kind of like now. I decide that afer all the painting is probably 95% about the character so I tone down the guys in the background. I decide to keep the face undefined and gestural as it feels truer to the moment I am depicting.

Hope this helps, happy painting ! 💪 🖍️