I’m going to teach you my approach to sketching and pushing those sketches to a final result. The idea behind this method is to let loose and continuously experiment with your drawing when pushing your sketch to a more finished piece. For this approach, you will have to let go of your perfectionism to stay spontaneous during the whole process.
We first start off with a line drawing to set up the whole piece by sketching out all the elements of the drawing, like the character, the weapons, the background, and the visual effects. We will also dive deeper into how you can create a dynamic composition by using elements of the character, in this case, Akali from League of Legends.
Then we will move on to laying down our base colours for the piece, where I will be explaining the way I think about colour relationships and how to create a striking contrast between your lights and shadows.
Finally, we will finish by talking about levels of polish and focusing detail on your areas of importance. The key during this tutorial will be to always be open to randomness and errors created by your own human imperfection. So be confident and trust yourself!
I used Clip Studio Paint for this piece, but you could follow a similar process in many of the best digital painting apps (also see our guide to the best drawing tablets if you need a canvas to work on).
01. Main lines
Starting off, we’re going to loosely etch out the pose, mainly focusing on its gesture. During this stage, I’m trying to capture the energy and flow of the piece. It’s important to think about the bigger picture here.
Every line should flow into one another, creating energy throughout the composition (in the image above, the red lines indicate the main flow and the violet lines the secondary flow).
02. Gesture and pose
Focusing on the pose, I want it to feel as if she has just landed in front of you and is ready to leap at any moment. Here, I’m using her legs to create that tension, putting her weight on her left foot and extending her right leg.
I use her arms to create an opposite flow in her pose, twisting her upper body as well as extending her left arm as if she just swung that arm all the way around her, leaving her left arm and kama in the foreground.
03. Intent and areas of interest
I start to add the main elements and think about my intent: showing off Akali in an agile pose, as if she’s coming at you straight on with her kama, ready to slice you to pieces. I put more emphasis on those elements, detailing them first and leaving the rest of the sketch very loose to have areas of interest.
Usually, I like to have my areas of interest based on the rule of thirds, because it creates a more dynamic composition
04. Creating depth
Afterwards, I start refining the flow of the piece by using the rope of her kama to guide the eye through the sketch, making it start at the kama, letting it flow behind her, and coming back around to flow towards us.
With the kama in the foreground, Akali in the midground and the rope going through the background, I create a lot of depth in the drawing while also guiding the eye through all its planes
05. Finishing up the sketch
After focusing on the main parts of the piece, I start detailing the rest of the sketch accordingly while also using hatching to plan out my lighting. I use her hair to create an opposite flow to the kama’s, framing her face and body to create focus.
Here, I am also refining the overall silhouette of the pose, thinking about negative spaces to create a clear silhouette.
06. Base colours
Once the sketch is finished, I start adding the base colours of Akali’s design. I’m using brushes with a watercolour edge to create randomness and fun textures.
This helps give a lot of subtle hue and value variations in the colours. I try to be as loose as possible here, leaving some areas uncoloured and blending others to create interesting transitions between colours. This is just a base for me to work on, as I will continuously build my colours throughout the whole process.
07. Background planning I
I also think about my background at this stage. My intent here is to create a cloud of smoke which Akali has just cut through, creating this intense light in the back. This also creates a line that cuts the composition through Akali’s face and emphasises its importance.
I also like to start adding some shadows by laying another layer of colour on top with my brush on Multiply blend mode.
08. Curves and saturation
Now my base colours are set up, I start playing around with the curve adjustment tool to add contrast and crunch my values, as well as adding saturation to my colours. Having a simpler value structure helps create clear contrast between your light and shadow.
I like having lighter overall values to keep my colours vibrant, especially in the shadows. I also plan out areas of warms and cools, using this contrast to break up my composition and create visible nuances in my colours. Finally, I add a rim light to make her silhouette pop out against the dark smoke.
09. Visual effects
At this stage, I start adding visual effects to the piece to create more flowing lines through my composition. Starting off with the smoke on her kama, I want it to feel as if it’s still sticking onto it after cutting through her smoke cloud. Here, I use the Lasso Fill tool to quickly get the shapes going, then I refine them using a watercolour brush to give them some transparency and texture.
The visual effects should be there to support the main energy lines of the piece, not take importance away from them – think of them as secondary to the primary flow lines.
10. Smoke bomb
I replace the kunai she’s holding in her left hand with a smoke bomb after having a friend suggest the idea of her igniting it using her kama like in her Level 3 Super in 2XKO. This change helps create a more visible flow of the left hand’s movement. It also adds a dash of orange, which I’m really fond of.
Always be open to changing things up as you move towards a finished piece. It’s always nice to try things and see if they work!
11. Cleaning up the piece
Now that everything is set up, all we need to do is clean up the areas of interest to have more detail and refinement in those areas compared to others, which will create contrast between the two.
I start by rendering her right arm, using a vibrant purple for her tattoo to contrast her skin. Then I start rendering out the rest of the arm and face, moving towards the smoke bomb bag that she ties around her waist. I’m focusing on areas of interest where I want it to feel more polished.
12. Rendering philosophy
Since the overall piece is really sketchy, I can be free in the way I render, using hard brushes to hatch or soft brushes to blend areas I want. The key is not to lose that energetic feel while still conveying form.
Some areas are left untouched, while others get rendered, creating visual interest. For example, the face has almost no hatching or stray lines as opposed to the areas around it. I use this method to guide the eye towards areas of interest while always referring back to my initial intent.
13. Finishing touches
Finally, I finish the piece by adding glows and subtle gradients to unify my lights and colours. I use softer brushes to have less contrast in some areas, as well as painting a vignette to emphasise focus on the centre of the painting.
Lastly, I add the final smoke effects drifting off her to help highlight the direction of her last movement before she landed. I then add a subtle chromatic aberration to the piece, radiating from a centre point – her face – to create focus.
14. Conclusion
The drawing is now finished! This piece took me around two days to create, which would have been unachievable if I tried to make everything look super clean. Keeping a rough, spontaneous approach to this piece also helped with expressing the energy of my initial sketch.
It’s very important to me to not lose that once I start pushing a drawing to a more finished piece. Having a loose and fast process helps me stay spontaneous in my approach, which makes it easier for me to experiment and try things I wouldn’t have thought of.
I would rather have a drawing that’s rough and interesting than a drawing that’s clean and boring. So go have fun and make the art you want to make!
This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.
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