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.

Everything that's old is new again

Things have been a bit quiet on the illustration front for me, being kept busy with work and family life... One creative outlet I've found is colorizing old black and white photos that people have been posting on Reddit. It's been an interesting way to practice photo retouching, as well as explore color theory and lighting.

Here are a couple before-and-afters of pics I've worked on: