The Art of a Predator

Posted on 30. Jan, 2010 by DAS Team in Figure, Tutorials

My name is Shahir Shakir. I’ve been creating digital painting for several years now, ever since I got my first tablet in 2003. In all that time I’ve kept trying new things and challenging myself while relearning what needs to be learned. Often it takes me almost a week to complete a new picture. The biggest hurdle for me is to complete what I had already begun. This Alien versus Predator piece, based on the 2nd AVP film, was one of those works that took the longest time. Not much was planned at the beginning except that I already had a sense of what I wanted to do. One of the things that constituted to its length was that I was gathering references and inspiration in between. So much got changed and redone, however I still managed to keep at it without losing my momentum. Completing a task is something of a triumph in itself and staying positive is the key. Hopefully this walkthrough will help inspire some to keep doing what they love.

I realize this is really (really?) really text heavy for a walkthrough of a digital painting, but it’s my way of allowing anyone interested to get into my head and know what went through it the whole time in addition to learning how it was done. Despite the category I submitted this in, it’s not meant to be a thorough tutorial. However it is my hope that beginners and intermediate level digital painters alike may get something out of this. If you don’t have time to read through everything then you can probably learn what you need just by studying the pictures.

With me so far? Okay, let’s go!

Due to becoming aware of the many awesome figures and models coming out based on the Predator franchise from specific companies, my interest in them just sky rocketed. Since I can’t afford them at the moment the best thing I could think of was draw them, and hopefully turn them into decent paintings. I really hadn’t picked out which Predator to do when I started drawing this sketch in my 10 by 14 inches sketch book.

Big is good, scanning them isn’t, and that’s why I usually just take snapshots of my hand drawings with my digital camera. I paint directly onto to that photo on a new layer in Photoshop using the same brush which I intend to use (mostly) throughout the painting (now you know why there are picture camera details showing alongside the description).

It is during this transition from paper to screen that I paid more focus to lighting, proportion and anatomy. Anyhow, it wasn’t until the shading part that I decided to go with the Wolf Predator from AVP: Requiem. So the movie was a bit of a letdown but it had a lot of potential to become even more. I won’t get into that but at least you know what the basis of this fan art is. The main Predator was clearly awesome and very unique. Plus he’s decked out with a large array of arsenals ,which leads to a lot of delicious detailing opportunities.

Other than that I knew from the beginning I wanted to add a dead Alien at his feet, which is covered ankle deep in water. After messing around with the gradient tool for the background to get some atmosphere it later occurred to me that it would be a great idea to make an abstract version of the sewers with the Predalien making a cameo in the background.

After making so much changes from the original sketch I mentally went blind so to speak, but my friend ~Gatling helped me out with that with her helpful feedback and support.  With that I was confident to finally add some colors. It was made on a new layer set to overlay so that I could maintain the values of the original shadings, as well as the mood. I guess in traditional terms it’s like glazing.

Now that I’ve got a clear goal in mind, it was time to flatten everything, uprez the picture (from 180 to 300 px/inch) and gather up the reference materials that I needed. For the Predator I already collected enough when I was obsessed prior to the first sketch. I began refining the mask followed by the armour due to them being made of the same material.

After finishing the details on the head I had an idea to also paint in the targeting laser beam that the Predators are famous for. It’s a bit early I suppose, but because it’s so high in contrast I felt I had to take everything that revolves around it into account, especially my colour choices. Just to be safe however I maintained it on its own separate layer throughout the process. From then on I proceeded to work on the hunter’s many weapons as they emphasized his silhouette.

Then the fun part for me was the skin and the fishnets. I still used my custom charcoal brush for this but I varied my strokes using circular motions. In between the many circles I created crease lines just by using an extremely fine brush size. It’s the same with the armor plates, but instead of using circular strokes I used the dabbing method similar to the pointillism technique to create the effect of dents.

As a rule it’s best to reveal texture in high contrast where the highlights and shadows meet. When continuing the next morning I noticed a lot of problems I didn’t see before with the perspective, as well how the leg meets the pelvis. Not a problem, I just selected the areas to move with the lasso tool, copy, paste it, arrange, flatten image and then cover the exposed seams with a repaint. You really just have to go with your instincts with this kind of thing. I also didn’t like how the skull trophy seemed to be extending out of his butt so I moved that, too.

After rearranging where the whip was hanging it was getting a little too complicated down there so I removed one of the skulls. It’s a basic principle of mine when painting; if something gets too complicated, simplify. Painting is more attuned to creating an illusion afterall. In my opinion, it’s what separates it in essence from photography.

I was satisfied with the status of the main subject, so I decided to move on to the second focal point which of course is the dead Alien. Using pictures that you can find on the Internet is the next best thing to a drawing resource if you don’t have a real life model. But I was lucky that I happened to own an Alien action figure from Mcfarlane’s movie maniacs line. Hands on resource is simply the best learning tool. Thanks to the flash floods here I know he’s water proof so I placed him in a partially filled basin.

I needed something to determine how much of its body I can reveal and cover with water. This is the first time I’m actually drawing an Alien because I used to find them very intimidating to illustrate. They still are but don’t let that discourage you, always challenge yourself. In the course of this I also took the time to learn how light affects solid objects while interacting with reflective water. Thankfully I’m painting filthy sewage water so it doesn’t have be clear and see through. Then I looked up what would happen if acid got into water just to see if I can include potentially realistic new effects as the Alien’s blood mixes with it. Apparently nothing happens, but if you pour water into acid it’s a totally different result (and you better be wearing non-flammable protection when you experiment with this, kids). It’s a big chemistry no-no and I failed chemistry. Nonetheless I still wanted my bubbles.

Finally, I became more attentative to the background. I know I wanted to go for the basic cool background versus warm foreground theme but the original seemed too excessive on the cool front. Also, with the Predalien so plainly visible just didn’t scream “scary” enough for me so I took a cue from movies like the Lord of the Rings (remember Samwise in the third film?) and depicted her as a shadow creeping around the bend. Some people don’t know it but the Predalien is technically a queen. Another fact of the matter is that while I was working on the tunnel, a particular song was looping in my head, to which I then decided to have it play in the background. Sing it with me now if you’re an Avatar fan, “Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountains, secret secret secret secret tunnellllll yeah”. Ahem, anyway I was really spent by this time and feeling anxious to get to work on another piece that I’ve already started in between this one. So after some minute edits with the hues and the lighting I flattened all but the red beam, signed my name, applied a very light noise filter (for that coarse look) and sharpen the pic, so that when I shrink the image size textures will reveal themselves with clarity even in jpeg format.

I’m not completely satisfied with the background, but after working on this for several days straight for a week I lost my patience towards the end. I’m only human and I do have my limits.

Whoo-whee! That’s all for now Props to you for reading everything and getting this far. You’re awesome! If you have any questions/suggestions/things to add then by all means feel free to leave a comment.

For more Information, please visit:

DeviantArt Site: http://wulfsbane.deviantart.com/

Website: http://shahir-shakir.blogspot.com/

E-mail: wulfsbane@gmail.com

Tags: alien, predator, shahir shakir, the cleaner