Photoshop:CREATE A MIXED GENRE CHARACTER

Dave Greco showcases the key techniques behind the creation of this collaborative original character

- Dave Greco

In this painting, I wanted to create a small, intimate moment with my original character, Vaele. She was created recently, along with the help from my Twitch community, and was a great exercise on creating an OC. It was fantastic to brainstorm an original idea within a group and then expand on it, live while people watched.

Since then, this piece was created as a small thank you to everyone involved for hitting some recent milestones. I was aiming for something that was warm, inviting, and felt like a pleasing, cosy image for a viewer to relax to.

Over these next few pages I will share a quick overview of my creation process, as well as some important tips and tricks I learnt along the way.

Top tips for...

CHARACTER CREATION

1 Early sketch

In this phase, it's best to find a nice pencil brush and start sketching with loose lines and shapes. It's important for me to keep my hand moving pretty fast and not let myself get slowed down by any major details. The painting will only stiffen up as you render, so keep it as loose as possible.

2 Base colour/refine

Next I like to do another, more refined sketch on top of the loose one. This allows me to dive into the smaller shape design more and really find the parts that will make the piece work. I use a Multiply layer to wash colour right on top of it, usually setting the tone for the painting.

3 Start the render