ICE FESTIVAL
This was a personal project, with the intention of testing new skills and approach of my style. The characters portrayed are from The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab. The scene is set at a winter festival, filled with magic and people, when Lila and Kell share a tender moment.
MOODBOARD
put together refs of how i wanted to approach the illustration
frame 1
frame 2
For the basic sketch (frame 1) I wanted them to be picked out of the background, so in order to do that I brought them forward in composition--that also translates into the greyscale (frame 2).
frame 3
frame 4
This is the time to play around with the gradient map, which helps me to not get lost on the render later on, by having the initial idea flashed out in simpler shades.
frame 5
frame 6
It is visible that I lost some of the original vibe as I placed down the colors, which proves the point that-- by having the gradient maps, I can go back and apply that technique back to the painting (frame 6).
frame 7
In the finished version we see other elements being incorporated in order to give more depth and make the scene more dynamic (such as blur effects, etc).