twi'lek boy and jedi guardian process

hello again! more progress work i thought you might enjoy :) i do all my work in photoshop CS4 by the way...

pre step 1 - the plain scan of the pencils for the jedi guardian character. i scan in color at 300 dpi.

pre step 2 - i use levels to darken my blacks (and allows you to see all that i scribble before the clean final piece!)

pre step 3 - now i use levels to bring out the white and remove most of those nasty sketch lines.

pre step 4 - time to clean up those lines! here i get rid of mistakes (the line i didn't want to use for the pouch string and the accidental line that went from her leg through the pouch). MAGIC WAND TOOL! select those clean lines then create 3 layers. on the top layer, use a large brush to fill in those selected lines in black (that can be colored later) and fill the bottom layer with white. middle layer is for colors later :) DELETE THE ORIGINAL BACKGROUND LAYER AND ALL THAT HARD WORK ON PENCIL AND PAPER!!! :)

step 1 - now i have added our little jedi guardian to the young twi'lek boy (and you thought i drew them together... MWAHAHA) which i have already done the pre steps for. i put them on a 8X10 background (my favorite size). you will not that the lines here are already colored but i normally would reserve that step until after i added the flat colors.

step 2 - FLAT COLORS!!! i use preset actions i have created to do this step SUPA FAST!

step 3 - gradient overlay using a light yellow because i wanted it to seem like they were out in the desert heat.

step 4 - a simple desert background for a nice complete pic... ALA-KAZZAM! all done :)

here is the original request from yuit420:

Standing around 4'10 with a lush light orange colored skin is a Twi'lek, his head-tails lay generally loose over the front of his shoulders with a thin but strong appearance. Bright yellow pupils peer from underneath his brow with thin lips pursed together showing off a cardinal red hue, different from his skin itself. Stripes that look similar to lightning strips are layered down his arms and along the outline of his face, their light color showing brightly once noticed as they blend well with his skin.
Wrist high black leather gloves would be the first obvious portion of this boy's clothing as his arms show bare from a shoulder-cut leather shirt held tightly to his body. Belts wrap around the front, side, and back three times up and down his abdomen while the tight leather shirt flows down into a tactical belt full of pockets for various gadgets and a gun holster on his right thigh with a small blaster pistol in the spot. The pants themselves are tight but not form-defining, leading down his legs into a pair of shin-high black boots. The boots themselves have silver studs protruding along the outside of them to the sole, where when the boy walks silver spikes are underneath the very soles to provide unbelievable traction for whatever reason he may need.

hope you had fun playing along!!

jer