VectorThirtyThree: The War of the Worlds

It's a bank holiday weekend! A lot of my friends were heading out to get drunk, but not me. No, sir! I spent the weekend with my face in Photoshop (again). I like to spend my free time as a Digital Artist ;) So for me it was Digital Art weekend!!

Often when I sit up Photoshopping through the night I end up listening to Jeff Waynes - The War of the Worlds. So, I wanted to design a photo illustration as my own piece of fan art. Here's the outcome :)

The designs of the tripods came from a different photo illustration that I completed a couple of years ago. Originally the characters were called Roborgs. They're an inquisitive martian race who are wandering our planet and researching. But for this weekends artwork I turned them into the violent martians from the War of the Worlds.

Here's the process shots.

01: Take photo of Thames river. Try to place recognisable, iconic landmark in the background.

02: Generate HDR of photograph and push contrast/saturation levels to create a more illustrated feel.

03: Sketch loose ideas onto the photo. Work out best character placings to create a comfortable composition.

04: Remove photo and begin illustrating and finalising the design of the character.

05: Continue the same process for the remaining characters.

06: Complete the first layer of colouring. Select colours that complement the original photo.

07: Second layer of colouring is to add colour gradients, creating a sense of weight and dimension to the characters.

08: Composite the illustration with the photograph by adding shadows where the characters come in contact with the objects in the photo and adding the same grimy textures to the characters.