This painting is an exclusive commission for the YouTube channel MrSuicideSheep. I was very lucky to be given full freedom for the concept and draw anything that came to mind.
I decided to create a portrait inspired by one of my favorite animated films, The Little Prince. The story follows a little prince who travels to different planets and includes themes of love, friendship, and loss. The stars in the movie play an important role and symbolise the hopes and dreams of different people. There’s a scene in the movie where all the stars are trapped inside a big glass jar, which inspired this painting.
I knew I wanted the stars to be the main light source and light up the character from above. The character has a dreamy facial expression and her eyes are closed. I wanted her to look like she was dreaming, waiting for someone to break the glass, free the stars and wake her up. To enhance the concept, I applied a night sky background and floating hair to make it feel like she’s in space, and the glass jar became a spacesuit helmet.
How I create…
STARLIGHT EFFECTS IN A PORTRAIT
1 Rough sketch
I start exploring quick ideas by doing some rough line sketches, focusing on getting the overall composition of the painting right. Because this is a portrait and the main focus is the face, it’s important to capture an expression that manages to communicate the mood and feeling that I want to deliver
2 Colours and lighting
Esta historia es de la edición March 2021 de ImagineFX.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición March 2021 de ImagineFX.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world