Fantasy illustrations are the perfect opportunity for artists to explore the magical, otherworldly and delightful. Despite the genre’s many clichés, there remain innumerable ways to have fun with your fantasy art. In this workshop, I’ll describe my process for generating a colourful fantasy portrait from scratch.
During my career I’ve painted many fantasy and sci-fi portraits for various indie games, book covers, short films and more for a variety of clients such as Clip Studio Paint and FairyLoot. I’ve even appeared in previous editions of ImagineFX!
The workshop will feature the key steps of my fantasy portrait creation process including the ideation phase, research and reference gathering, and colour and theme selection, among others. Taken together, they will help you create portraits that convey the classic feeling of fantasy and strikes an immediate chord with the viewer.
In addition, I’ll also describe the Photoshop tools and painting techniques that will help you generate high-quality fantasy portraits that accurately convey the magical vibe that’s typically seen in the subject area.
I hope that this month’s tutorial will provide you with the creative spark to produce your own fantasy portraits, full of life and colour.
1 Visualise the Queen of the Fields
I start with just getting an idea down on paper, starting with just a pose for the character, and adding in a few sketchy lines to indicate hair, clothing and the bouquet. I make a mood playlist for this and get cosy – painting a lush, verdant image isn’t easy in the dead of winter in Canada!
2 Refine the composition
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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
