Collaboration is one of my favorite parts of art, and when I had a request from one of my readers to help execute an idea he had for a Blood Bowl team poster, I was all-in. Here's a play-by-play of how I took a scanned pen and ink drawing and re-rendered it in Adobe Illustrator.
Casey had sent me this drawing as a sketch of what he wanted to do with the design. Since this was my first time seeing the design, I made a couple notes of what I really liked about the design:
- The Crooked nose. This bad boy looked like it had been broken and reset a good dozen times. It screams character and attitude. Perfection.
- The Beard. Stylized to look almost like a set of blades, the facial hair looks just as crazy and dangerous as a Norse football player should be.
- The Wings. Naturally.
- Blood and Thunder. A fitting slogan for this band of ultra-violent miscreants.
I traced out the nose and beard, using the rest of the face as a guide. I actually went beyond the point where I knew the helmet would cover, as this would serve as a guide for when I placed the two together. By developing the head and face separate from the helmet, I didn't have anything to distract me and distort the image. I then gave the entire head a bit of a steeper tilt forward for that extra bit of aggression.
I took the basic design from an actual football helmet, changing details as I needed to make it more Blood Bowl-esque. In addition to the wings coming off the ear guards, I pulled the front line back to help expose more of the face, and added a reasonable number of rivets (read: not baneblade level of rivets).
Step 3: Blood and Thunder
I wanted to slogan to be more integral of the illustration itself, so rather than isolate the banner, I had it above and below the face. I took advantage of the two-dimensional effect to tuck the "and" a little further back, letting the eye rest on the "Thunder" at the bottom of the composition. Finally, I cut some small triangles out of the banner at random intervals to give the banner a little more worn feel.
Step 4: Variety
The current version of Adobe Illustrator has the ability to add variable stroke-widths to your line work. I use this option a lot to add contrast and interest while not overwhelming the smaller details. There are a number of width profiles that come standard that I use often, but I also created several profiles to reuse on my drawings. I also did a thicker solid line around the entire head to help it stand apart from the banner.
Step 5: Color
Not much to add here. Casey specified the color of the helmet should be the same as the Philadelphia Eagles. Done and done.
Step 6: Highlights
This two-step process was accomplished in just one. By tracing out the path I wanted the highlights to follow, I was able to duplicate the layer and set a thinner secondary highlight for extra depth. I made sure to highlight the areas that not only made sense but helped to reinforce the themes I mentioned earlier. The blade-edges of the beard, the curl of the sneering lips, the flow of the banners, they all strengthened the theme.
Step 7: Shadows and Posterizing
The shadows were a two-step process that couldn't be duplicated to save time, but were worth the effort regardless. The first layer was in the style of Anime cell-shading, using big blocks of slightly darker color. This gave a lot of much needed depth to the wings in particular.
The second shading was inspired by woodblock cutters like Rockwell Kent. By repeating the black lines in the darkest areas, I was able to not only add depth but to also suggest a flow of surface, something that would not otherwise be apparent in a perfectly flat color like you get from a vector illustration.
When I was happy with the illustration I dropped it onto a revised Blood Bowl poster template, where I shrank the Blood Bowl logo to give more breathing room to the main character.
And with that I was done; an incredible experience overall. I learned a ton on this project, about positioning, facial expressions, and perfection versus imperfection in a believable and living character. Many thanks go to Casey for sharing his vision, a true pleasure to work for.
Next week I'm getting some more model together for the rest of the clean slate challenge. Painted goodness inbound!
