Geek Bar Lounge Friday ad

For my latest Geek Bar assignment, I was tasked with creating an illustration for their upcoming Lounge Fridays, "ultra-casual friday nights at Geek Bar, when patrons are encourage to wear their pajamas." The image suggested was having bar folk hanging around in pop culture-inspired accoutrements, with mugs in their hands. I was also given the request to "specifically include a blonde figure in a pokemon cap and baby blue bathrobe, and pink haired figure in a yellow captain kirk bathrobe." Sounded like fun.

Having people stand around in costume was pretty much the same idea I had for the Nerd Year's Eve ad so I decided to change it up a little, by skewing the perspective to suggest lens distortion. I scribbled out a quickie thumbnail in Sketchbook:

Once I determined that was the direction I wanted to go, I created a more comprehensive sketch in good ol' pencil and paper:

I got this reply: "This is awesome! I wonder about having everybody standing on a lounge day, but it looks so cool I don't want to mess with the artistic process. If there is any way to make a few people sitting that might be neat."

D'oh! Right, lounging. Got it.

I added a couple of people seated at tables on the ends, and we were off to the races. I created the lineart in Mischief, then took it into Photoshop. Because of the description, I knew the illo would have to be full-color. I started with a layer of base colors, then used Levels adjustment layers with masks to pull out the lights and shadows. I also used another adjustment layer to vary the saturation on the characters depending on their foreground/background placement, to help establish dimensional hierarchy. I then applied a low-density Photo filter layer for a little color harmony. And since the characters were in a cel-shaded style, I added some texture to the background to provide some visual interest:

It didn't occur to me until some time after I'd submitted the final art...
How is Boba Fett supposed to drink with his helmet on?
Ha! Oh well, that just makes the illustration funnier.

Another illustration under my belt, and I'm satisfied with how it turned out. I'm told they'll be re-using the ad monthly, and the concept was proposed to make slight modifications for each iteration, if I was willing. It's an interesting idea, having it be an evolving illustration, so we'll see how that turns out.

Motoko

As part of a development initiative, I've spent time doing tutorials and getting some coaching from Cristian Silva, a senior lead artist in one of our Australia studios. We went over the fundamentals, and he taught me some very useful Photoshop tips and tricks. It's helped tremendously with things I do on the job, and I've wanted to apply some of this new knowledge to my personal work, perhaps for a portfolio piece.

I knew Michelle Eubank-Mussoni from back in the days when I used to help staff and run anime conventions; she's a great cosplayer, with strong attention to detail and a very professional approach to costuming. I saw a pic that she posted of her dressed up as the main character from the anime/manga series "Ghost in the Shell" and thought it'd be good to use as the base for a photo illustration. I received permission to use the pic, along with a thumbs-up from the original photographer.

Motoko Kusanagi from "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex"

From Wikipedia:

Major Motoko Kusanagi (草薙 素子 Kusanagi Motoko) is a fictional character in the Ghost in the Shell anime and manga series. She is an augmented-cybernetic human employed as the squad leader of Public Security Section 9, a fictional law-enforcement division of the real Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Being strong-willed, physically powerful, and highly intelligent, she is well known for her skills in deduction and hacking.

Source photo:

Costume and modelling by Mogchelle Cosplay. Photography by The Enthusiasts.

Photo illustration:

I "up-rezzed" the art from 72dpi to 600dpi (a bit of overkill perhaps, but I wanted the option of having something I could print big later). I had to smooth out a lot of JPEG artifacting, using two copies of the art on separate layers; the top one set to color mode, and the one underneath set to grayscale, where I could concentrate on cleaning up the art and not worry about affecting the colors. I did some editing to simplify the wrinkles in the clothing, and added rim lighting using a technique I picked up from artist Glyn Dewis on Youtube. (Being able to separate the layer styles from a layer and apply masks is a revelation.) I then did more painting on an upper layer to fix problem areas.

I was shooting for the sort of character portraiture you find in work from High 5 Games, and I like the way this photo illustration came together. I need more practice, and this is a good step towards that.