PAINT EPIC BATTLES IN TRADITIONAL INK

Warhammer illustrator THOMAS ELLIOTT shows you how to create an epic science fiction fight scene with this step-by-step guide

As we-inspiring battles are one of my specialities, and in this tutorial I'll be sharing my process for painting one with inks. We'll cover everything from early considerations like composition and thumbnailing, to talking about materials and how best to create depth and volume. A lot of these approaches are applicable to images of any size and can be used in more than just battle scenes.

This painting will be done in acrylic inks, which are flexible and offer a huge variety of approaches.

I'll be sharing the process that I've found works the best for me and offers a great end result, both on the page and when scanned in. It's worth mentioning that it can be hard to undo a mistake in this medium, so it's worth exercising caution and working in a way that you can construct the picture carefully, making sure that you're building on top of successful elements.

1 Get started by creating some thumbnails

Any good picture begins with a hearty thumbnailing session! This is an important stage as it lets you experiment with ideas and make mistakes without investing too much time.

I went into this picture with the rough idea that I wanted it to be an outdoor battle scene featuring a huge pile of figures, with lots of little duels playing out across the image. In my thumbnail sketches, you can see that I'm looking at the general shape of the composition as well as sketching out ideas for individual fights between the characters.

2. Draw an initial sketch

With this being a traditional picture, it's essential that everything is laid out successfully early on, as it will be hard to move elements once we start painting. To help achieve this, sketch everything super loosely to begin with. This allows you to rub out and move elements around to find the best possible composition. The important thing to get across at this stage is the general pose of the figures and the space they'll occupy.