In this workshop I’ll be walking you through my process for painting this issue’s cover art and explaining my thought process as a character designer. I want this to feel like we’re just old friends sitting down together with a cup of coffee and talking about what art piece we’ve been working on lately.
I love designing characters and figuring out the world around them, so I can’t wait to share this art experience with you. I’ll be covering concepts and which character works best with your overall idea, how to create a strong colour theme and be talking about two key brushes I use.
Making art that people enjoy is one of the best feelings in the world, but if you’re not happy with it, it’ll bug you to death. Here you’ll see hard work paying off and be encouraged to never give up on that project of yours. You can walk away from it for a while or change it up a bit, but don’t give up on it forever. Sometimes you just have to look at it at a different angle to see what you’re missing. Come with me, get ready to dive into this colourful cover art and don’t forget to have fun along the way!
1 Developing the concept of the mermaid
I couldn’t be happier during the early stages of a project. This is where ideas are born and creativity thrives. When I was given the chance to draw a mermaid for the cover of ImagineFX, I jumped at the opportunity! Mermaids are magical and so much fun to draw. I quickly start sketching a few in Procreate to choose from, and come up with five different images to show the ImagineFX team.
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
