How I solved a colouring nightmare to make this isometric artwork for Supercell's 15th anniversary

Mobile game developer Supercell asked me to create an illustration to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The brief was to capture five games, 15 years and countless screaming barbarians. I was given total freedom except for one rule: I had to create the artwork using its IPs in my art style.

I was already a fan of Supercell’s games, so my goal was to showcase the craziness of the developer’s worlds in a playful, funny way, using its sense of humour. For this piece I wanted the viewer to travel through the artwork, discovering little stories along the way – just like you would in Supercell’s games – all while enjoying the characters it’s created over the years.”

I'll show you my process for the piece below. I used Photoshop, but you could use other digital art software. You might also want one of the best drawing tablets (or see how to use an iPad as drawing tablet with a PC).

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01. Laying down the sketch

I focus on the aspect that has the most impact on the viewer and will be the fundamental for the artwork: composition. The answer is in front of me: go isometric. This mirrors the POV of Supercell’s games, enables me to build up multiple tiny scenes and prevents any visual hierarchy among the different IPs. It also gives me a visual framework to start assembling the world.

02. Refining the line art

This stage requires patience and a lot of references in order to build up the line work of different characters and props from the developer’s games. The process here consists of drawing over my sketch in Photoshop. What’s crucial is making sure that the poses and proportions of the characters look good. The isometric view helps with the scale of the different parts.

03. Simplifying a colouring nightmare!

I use flat, cool-toned colours with warm accents to block zones and set the mood. By focusing on clarity, colour helps bring the composition together and creates the feeling I want to express.

A shadow pass using a Multiply layer and a mask makes the process quick and editable. I then apply different effects like glows, highlights and depth tricks to make the image feel alive.

For a workflow using traditional tools, see Marvel and DC Comics artist Max Dunbar's tutorial on how to a draw a character with pencil, pens and markers. And don't miss our advice on how to get better at figure drawing and our 10 tips for drawing the human body.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions available.