Workshops

Photoshop
MONSTER
CREATIONS
The creation of The Malesquis: an insight into
the evolution of a beast. By John Kearney

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 In depth Monster creations

his article will provide you its movement. I want it to look stylish used throughout the project as a source

T with a walkthrough of my
experiences during the
creation of this project. I hope
and be able to captivate the viewers’
imaginations. Lastly, I want to place it in
a setting of some peripheral interest and
of inspiration and guidance.
My beast will be from a breed of alien
creatures called The Malesquis. They can John Kearney
that you pick up some useful tips and create a composition with visual impact. only be found on one planet, a barren COUNTRY: UK
CLIENTS: Konami, Sky,
find it entertaining and informative. It’s good to be ambitious! I realise that and desolate place called Arrazine. This ITV, Empire Interactive
First, I assess what is required and set this is no easy task, and that preparation world is a hostile environment. It’s a
John has over
a few targets. I’m being asked to paint a will aid in making my goals a reality. The deadly battlefield for warriors and
seven years
striking monster, which immediately first task is to come up with a scenario. hunters brave or stupid enough to enter experience as
gives me the main focus of the painting. Even a basic story will give a design its domain. The deadly Malesquis are a 3D graphic
My design has to be solid, unique, and purpose and direction. I normally thus a prize trophy for those wishing to artist in the
video games industry. He
convincing enough to clearly visualise scribble down some ideas that will be better their reputation and wealth. is currently freelancing
on various projects.
www.brushsize.com

DVD Assets
The files you need
are on the DVD
FILES: Hunt_of_the_
Malesquis_1-5.psd
FOLDERS:
Full screenshots
SOFTWARE:
Photoshop CS2 (Demo)

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 Workshops

into Photoshop. I choose a thumbnail

that is barely enough to start with, scan
it in, and get straight to work. I quickly
create rough landscape dimensions for
my canvas and then begin adding to the
pencil sketch, digitally. I know the pose
The Malesquis concept eye candy. Then I go about searching for has to be fairly strong and clear enough
1 I’ve been given landscape some reference, both on the internet and to show off the design, so I get stuck in
dimensions, which influences my in my book collection. I end up with with some basic, loose shapes. A rough
decision to go with a quadruped rather a folder packed with numerous impression of the caves is introduced so
than a biped. The monster has to be the photographs. Included are scorpions, that the environment is indicated for
main focus, and I feel a biped would have turtles, crabs, earwigs, wasps, rams, and compositional purposes. If ideas are
made the composition potentially even seashells! Many thoughts begin to flowing, it’s usually a good idea to go with
problematic. Using my story line, I’m able flood my mind, so I take advantage of them and capitalise on the inspiration.
to get a feel for the kind of beast that them by knocking out some incredibly
would work well in a harsh habitat. I crude and rudimentary sketches. The Canvas set-up
think the perfect mix would include purpose of this is to begin to get my ideas 4 I carefully review the dynamics
armoured shells, mobile limbs for down on paper. I don’t worry too much of the creature and think more about
climbing rocks, an impressive arsenal about the quality of my initial thumbnail composition. I also make mental notes of
of weapons for attack, and a few sketches; they are just mental notes, places where I could add the hunters and
vulnerabilities, indicating that adept which are there to be built upon. then rotate, crop and scale the image to
warriors would be able to challenge them. half of my intended final resolution. I do
Selecting and this for two reasons: I know that I will
Gathering reference 3 developing a sketch eventually refine and detail the whole
2 material for inspiration Usually, I take quite a lot of time to Straight lines picture once all the basics are in place –
C and Mac)
I write a quick list of insects, animals, and develop my chosen sketch. This time, I Shift+click (P ht this is the stage where the resolution
ve troub le drawing straig
Ha
anything else that might provide useful feel impulsive and eager to get straight wn Shift and matters. Secondly, I want to use
lines? Hold do
int where you Photoshop quickly during my initial
click at the po
to end.
want the line sketching. Once I reach a basic milestone,
Et voila!
I begin to think about brushes that I
might need during later stages.

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Brush management worry too much about having a palette
5 Texture is always important to me. laid out. With the knowledge that new
More often than not, I prefer to manually light sources will be added at a later stage,
draw a lot of it rather than use large I proceed to paint some blue hues of
brushes; it can make things look linear differing brightness to give me a basic
and samey. You can define contour and ambience and an underpainting on
shape much better with smaller brushes which to work. Doing this provides an
that are endowed with a hint of texture. effective starting point, because the
One of my favourites that I use in 90 per fundamental tones of the image are set.
cent of my work is the Pastel Brush, I recommend getting rid of the white
which ships with Photoshop’s Natural canvas as quickly as possible.
Media Brushes. It gives me a bit of grain
and a nice shape, which I personally Lighting and colour
prefer for painting. I supplement this 7 Lighting affects absolutely
with custom brushes that I have drawn everything, so consider its colour and
myself, usually with pencil on paper. You intensity very carefully when selecting
get a lot of organic grain for free, and this and mixing surface colours. Think about
makes things look very natural. the quality of light and the effect it will
have on shadows. Light can be used to Compositional
Colour and add areas of focus, add contrast, create
Pr
transeserve
8 enhancements
6 tonal foundations atmosphere, or describe form. Since my
p
/ (PC arency
and Stalactites and stalagmites provide ideal
Prese Mac)
rve T
I consider that tones, values, contrast and scene is going to be set in a dark cave, I ra
(on o nsparenc
contrast points against the sky and
r off) y
overall lighting generally take paramount use the foreground hunter as a source of the w
orkin
for foreground, which frame the picture and
g lay
importance. Colours can be changed light via his weapon. This is planned and er. add more interest. While painting the
incredibly easily when working digitally. absolutely necessary, otherwise the ground, I try to incorporate natural
As long as I am near the mark, I don’t Malesquis’ face will be in darkness. patterns that will help lead the viewer’s
eye into the picture and create depth.
Complementary light sources often add
some colour interest. If placed correctly,
they can also provide you with the ability
to use rim lighting. This enables you to
highlight one edge, a technique often
used in film and photography for
dramatic lighting. It’s most striking
when used in high contrast.

PRO
SECRETS
Optimising
keyboard
shortcuts
I dislike using my Intuos
touch strips and prefer
keyboard shortcuts. I
permanently have one
hand on Ctrl+Z (undo)
because it often takes
multiple tries before
hitting the correct
brushstroke. My most
used shortcuts are
dispersed around Ctrl+Z,
and I find it an
inconvenience using
square brackets to
change brush size.
Therefore, I have
remapped brush-size
shortcuts from the
square brackets to [Z]
and [X] which means my
eyes never have to leave
the screen.

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 Workshops

Improving weak areas

9 and correcting mistakes Screen mod
e
Mac)
[F] (PC and
It’s necessary to make some comments screen
For switching ve
regarding the organic nature of painting eat way to sa
modes – a gr en
se lf time wh
fantasy artwork. Making critical decisions your
on
working away
on the quality of your painting is vital your picture.
every step of the way. Learning to
critically assess your work is the first step
in being able to point out problems and Complementary The area that has a rocky stepped
make corrections. Fantasy artwork is not 1
11 elements pathway is one of curiosity and
like drawing a portrait. You have no real I always try to think of things that encourages the viewer’s eye to roam
direct reference; as a result, the painting will add decorative interest and be around the picture. These little touches
has to be given a chance to evolve. complementary to the look of the can add a lot to a painting.
finished painting. What is
10 Character and detail
considerations PRO
complementary? It boils down to
personal preference and artistic vision. 2 Adjusting
12 dull sections
If an area needs a bit of life or slight
I rarely make a proper design for character SECRETS This is where individuality shines colour variation, I’ll simply create a new
clothing in a painting like this because HSB Colour through. I decide that crystal sparkles layer, change it to Overlay or Hard Light,
the scale means that most of the detail is palette from the rocks would work well. Partially and hit this layer with hints of my desired
Colour selection is
just suggestive. My initial foreground obscured light sources tend to create glow colours using a soft-edged brush. This
incredibly important
character pose isn’t working too well, so I when painting. Making effects on camera lenses, so I decide to keeps the texture you have underneath
change it to something more dynamic. sure you have the right implement them at the back of the cave. but changes the underlying colour, the
brightness and hue can
The revised character’s feet are positioned Doing so gives the area a cinematic feel intensity of it, and adds vibrancy in the
be time-consuming and
to give the impression that they have slid, frustrating, especially with a hint of mystery and atmosphere. process. I use this sparingly.
with bits of debris spewing up. The when using the default
decorative cloak adds balance to his body RGB Colour Palette. Try
changing it to the HSB
position. It’s important to plant the Colour Palette by left
Malesquis’ front legs into the ground and clicking the small arrow
to add further dust and rubble around at the top right of the
Colour Window. With a
them. I make the landscape fairly little practice, you should
inhospitable by adding sharp rocks and find that colour selection
convey depth by drawing a few distance becomes much more
intuitive and accurate.
layers that gradually fade into the sky.

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 In depth Monster creations
it’s sprayed randomly when painting.
The dust is created with a brush that I
demonstrate how to create in my Exodus
answer in this month’s Q+A section (see
page 36). As a final measure, I flattened
the image and make colour corrections
using Levels dialog. At this stage, I
sometimes like to hit the image with a
few subtle glows in key places. I do this
by creating a new layer, setting the layer
mode to Colour Dodge, and painting the
blooms with a soft-edged brush.

5 Summary
115 It takes a great deal of time and
effort to be able to put something down
in a way that enables others to capture
the essence of your idea or fantasy. You
113 It’s bugging me!
If anything is catching my eye and
with the design of the limbs and tails.
The tissue suggests the neck can extend
need to balance technical ability with
creativity and be willing to suffer plenty
annoying me, then I feel compelled to out, increasing its manoeuvrability, and of frustration in the process. Painting a
change it. The horn crown feels a bit too enabling Malesquis to quickly strike with picture is often a struggle against
clichéd and too similar to a Triceratops a snap of its jaws. The result is a weirder yourself, but the sense of achievement
for my liking. This design doesn’t work design, similar to a tortoise, but definitely when you are finished is enough to make
too well when I imagine the Malesquis more threatening! you go through it all over again.
brought to life. If placed in a film or Overall, I think I manage to achieve
game, the head movement would have
looked severely restricted due to the 14 Adding effects and
finishing touches
quite a few of my goals with my picture
of The Malesquis, so I am reasonably
horns clashing into the shell. It bugged My custom brushes are used to create the pleased with the result! I hope this article
me the whole time, so I decide to try an debris, dust, and little sparkles. The has inspired you, and has helped
alternative near the very end. It occurs to debris/sparkle brush consists of noisy demonstrate a workflow for creating
me that the themed muscle tissue might smudges and dots. I adjust the Scatter your own fantastical beasts from concept
work well as a neck and be consistent and Angle Jitter settings of the brush, so to completion.

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