Way of the Samurai

Ok my first artwork for this blog, my fan art of Mirumoto Kei.

Who is she? She's a character, card rather from AEG's Legend of the Five Rings TCG.

To make her, I used a method called photo-tracing wherein; as the name states, a reference photo is traced. The difference however from actual tracing is that you don't copy the entire image, rather use it as a base.

For my process, I used an image of a cos-player for my reference; I'll post it once i get it from my laptop. Placing the image in a layer with very low opacity I drew the anatomy and then the clothes that became my line-art. Once I had my line art I proceeded with colors, again making use of the reference image.

I didn't color the work exactly as the image though; this is where my creativity went wild. Instead of copying the image exactly as it was, i used it only as a value guide. With that I now knew what parts of the image were lighted and where the shadows should be. This method gives me a great advantage as I can willingly change colors schemes, the method gave me the option of making different versions with ease since i didn't have to remake the lighting and shading, I merely changed colors and hues.

Now I know some artists frown upon this method, I however openly accept it especially for its advantages w/c are:

A way to learn anatomy.
Different clothes and settings
Value guide.

However like all things it too has its disadvantages:

Makes you seem unoriginal
You can become dependent
May be part of copyright disputes.

Thanks for viewing and have a good day.