Tyrande, Night Warrior
Portrait Breakdown
Let me take you one a standard walk through of my approach to doing a portrait. For this example, I used Tyrande from the new cinematic. I really love the cool colors and the aesthetics that have been added to the character.
I like to arrange a color palette on its own layer so that you always have access to them as you start to cover the surface area of the character and fewer elements can be seen. On top of the benefit of being able to see your palette on its own layer, you also have the added benefit of seeing all your colors together before starting. If you have an eye for color and understand complimentary colors you will be able to pick out poor color choices before even starting and save yourself some polishing work in the long run.
When doing the illustration of the character herself, I find it easiest to block in big areas first then add in shading and highlighting afterwards. Start with big blocks such as the entirety of the hair and the face and add detail at your leisure (after you've done the large block, make sure you switch the fill/. Remember this is not a race, when you rush your work, you tend to ruin your final product. If you get tired or frustrated there's no shame in taking a break to give your eyes a rest.
Any portrait is only as good as the background aesthetics that you choose to provide them. Tyrande is a Night Warrior, a Goddess of the Moon. So, it seemed fitting to provide the Moon Priestess with a moonlit background. I also decided to have some of her hair and ear push off of what would traditionally be considered the edge of the artboard. If you want to do this, ensure that when you export your assets that you have background transparency on so that you don't also export the white artboard.
To add more luminescence to the scene I created a disc with a outer glow effect set to a Color Dodge setting to create a glow from behind Tyrande. I also added clouds and stars to provide depth to the background. If you would like a step by step for this portion, check out TutVid on youtube, he has fantastic tutorials to really show you some nuances in illustrator that you may not have known about.
I added this image just so it was clear just how much work goes into a project like this. There are SO many individual paths that are all meticulously maintained by the designer building your portfolio. If this is something you want to try, I can't impress enough upon you how patient you need to be. It's ok to be frustrated and it's ok to fail. It's all part of the learning process. Anyway, Have a great day designers!
