WORKFLOW : Ice Dragon Art’s Guide to Character Art Production

Sonja McClung (ICE DRAGON ART) has often been asked about her workflow to generate her character art. There’s often a sense of “information overload” when faced with the amount of choices in character art production, both inside DAZ Studio and in the post-work. It’s like travelling through a labyrinth, where some artistic decisions just lead you to a dead end, wasting energy and time in the journey. Sonja works for  Sympatico Studios and is experienced in frequently creating promotional artwork.

Register for this live webinar to discover Sonja’s character art system AND gain a bonus tutorial from Sonja on managing content in your DAZ Studio library.

Webinar date : Sunday 15th September at 20:00 BST (London)/ 12:00 PDT (Los Angeles)/ 15:00 EDT (New York)

Webinar duration : 1.5 hours

Software used in this class

• DAZ Studio
• Photoshop

Session Content

DAZ Studio initial set up

• Choose character/main subject
• Creating a main focus point
• Select a secondary focus point
• Selecting an outfit
• Add  jewellery and clothing accessories
• Work on the eyes and make up
• Consider skin and tattoos.
• Hair selection
• dforce or not dforce?
• Posing the character
• Craft an expression
• Additional objects or background pieces
• Lighting choices

Adjusting Modes

• Screen soft light multiply in multiples then group
• Why render an image darker

Dodge and Burn

• How to be effective with highlighting and shadows

Background

• Add background –  matching the lighting

Texture overlays

• Blending on top of the main image

Background Blending

• Look up tables and modes

Filters 

• Advantages using the Nik collection
• Special effects

About the presenter : Sonja McClung

“I’ve loved fantasy for as long as I can remember. Fairies, elves, dwarves, centaurs, and of course, dragons. I love the possibility of the impossible that fantasy brings, the wide open opportunity to get lost in a world that is far different than ours, full of magic and wonder, feats of heroism that defy the odds and best of all, good always conquers evil. What’s not to love?

I’ve always loved to draw as well. I can’t remember a time that I didn’t have a crayon (or a pencil, or a paintbrush) in my grubby little hands. I took a long hiatus from drawing when I was raising my kids (best art project ever!) and started to really get back into art in the last 6 years or so. I picked up photoshop and immediately fell in love with being able to draw and paint digitally. A couple of years later, I found Daz Studio, a 3D art application and was totally hooked!”