Technique focus
DEVELOP A NEW PAINTING STYLE
Alexander “Minze” Thümler develops a fresh workflow for his upcoming graphic novel project
“This piece is an experiment – I wanted to explore an art style for my graphic novel. I started with a thumbnail sketch to capture the idea and quickly establish the composition and lighting. After refining the drawing and blocking in local colours, I added cast shadows and ambient occlusion on Multiply layers. For the light areas, I used Color layers and Adjustment curves, separating them from the shadows with masks. Additional Normal layers enabled me to paint reflections on metal, skin and other surfaces, as well as indirect light in the shadows. To avoid time-consuming rendering, I decided to keep the line art.”