tutorial: The Red Death

For an advert page I wanted to make a character poster to go with the comic. I figured why not make a villain for the appearance, something to make the character look mysterious but having a devil-like appearance but lacking the horns and tail. I took some ideas and drew a few to build ideas for the character. 

1. I drew this fella to stand straight, one hand clutching to his coat and the other creating a mythic energy in his palm. Was drawing the face and originally wanting to give him a sinister look and

dred-locks but thought giving him a hat to hid the top half of his face to give off a mystery of him. I drew four of the scythe-shaped blades surround him as part of his powers, giving them sharp tips.

2. the background had to have a grey and dark tone to make him look dark as villains don't have light backgrounds usually to make them appear terrifying. Smudging and blending the areas together so they go well together and not make it as though they don't work together on each layer.

3. Working on the coat, giving it a dark brownish colour, adding some shading to make sure the colours  aren't too flat. Adding a new layer for the blades and cutting the areas before I would start painting the blades.

4. Going for the red skin and purple hair, thought it would make him less human as he is one of the antagonists in the New Genesis series. Going for the red colour to relate to his title "Red Death", so I started with the dark red first.

5. Added more red but lighter and pink to give it a reflective light on the surfaces, I looked at some jewellery and shiny rocks to see how the light reflects from them. replacing the black lines of the blades with pinkish red to make it more better as an actual reflection.

 

6. Replacing most of the black lines and added the title above to make it thin and gave the same tone of colour as the character's powers.