This piece is for the ArtOrder challenge "The Usual Suspects. The assignment was to create 4 archetypes of the role playing and fantasy world. These can be found on his website for a more in depth description.
What's important to share however, is what I learned from this assignment. Working from thumbnail silhouettes is sooooo much easier and fun than jumping right into the more refined sketch process.
As I worked on this assignment, I created more believable anatomy, poses, and dynamism, than i've achieved on previous sketches because my right brain did all the work for me. Working on such a simple scale of shape, my brain was constantly filling in the rest, and I could "feel" and intuit where things were supposed to go rather than having to consciously think about it.
This solid color thumbnail process will definitely be integrated in my future illustrations. For all those with similar interests, definitely try it out.
Also watching a marathon of deadliest warrior on Spike TV helped with generating ideas. I found that ideas flow more naturally when i just surround myself with the subject rather than trying to spotlight certain pieces of reference.
