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.
09: Add natural light to the illustration and colour correct the entire image. I went for a slight sepia tone to give the image an aged look.
10: The complete image. Finer details have been incorporated into the image and typography used for the iconic title.
