Not originally meant to be an online tutorial, I drew these images for a friend yesterday to illustrate how one can go about designing an image with Photoshop.

Here's a few technical notes for those interested and then I'll get onto the methods I used:

- I used 3 brushes exclusively for these pieces, and I generally use the same ones on all Photoshop projects:
- 100% Opacity, 100% Flow (Strongest color, used for laying down "flat colors" and the lineart)
- 60% Opacity, 40% Flow (Used initially for rough sketches or rough shading)
- 30% Opacity, 20% Flow (Used mostly for lighter sketches or refining already existing rough sketches/shading)

Here's the real meat of this tutorial. When going about drawing anything, I highly recommend using different mediums or drawing techniques to visualize or 'concept' your finished work. The images above are studies on the official character art from Zelda: Twilight Princess, a fantastic game which I have not yet had the pleasure of playing. Putting that aside, I made a total of three images, two concepts and one more or less finished piece.

The first image on the left is a gestural sketch - this means I moved the brush very quickly to get a feel for the form and figure. This isn't any precise line making, its quick, fast and dirty. If you find your gesture drawings lifeless and dull, try turning up the juice a little (ie. draw faster) and I bet you'll see something a little more lively.

The second image is a tonal study, where I attempted to lay down the tone (don't think about the lines, trust me) and pick out the forms I felt were distinctive (cheekbone, swordbelt, hair, eyes, etc.) This helps me focus on how light falls on the character as well as prioritize what makes the character look the way he/she does. For example, you might know your character has beautiful eyes, or very cool windswept hair. I try to pick out these features so I can accentuate them in the finished image.

The last image is the most "finished." I went for a celshaded approach which I rarely use but found to be good fun. I can't offer any technical advice on this last piece at the moment, but I can guarantee you this image would not have had much integrity without the prior studies. With that, I'm off for dinner ~

~ Talster