ABOUT

I was commissioned by a writer to create a mythical Orc based on the World of Warcraft series. He requested a design that would aid him to fully realize his character and to give him a foundation on which to build upon his fiction. Additionally the art would have to encompass the character's nature. This was done by setting the character in a landscape that has importance to the Orc.
This was a big project for me, as an artist I don't feel very confident in my skills as a landscape artist. I wanted to utilize the style of a concept artist, which they would normally focus on atmosphere and depth rather than detail into the landscape so that it speeds up the design process. I prefer this style over highly detailed landscapes because I feel that the style outweighs any need for extreme detail which the viewer may or may not appreciate. Plus, less time taken on the landscape as well would allow me more time to focus on the detail of the Orc, which the art focuses on. Unfortunately, this style takes a lot of research and practice, which took a lot of my time to learn. Not all of the techniques I've learnt are shown here, because I learnt and understood the techniques better afterwards.
So, throughout this painting, I have gained a lot of knowledge and practice to move on to bigger things and hopefully speed up the process. The commissioner and I communicated regularly, sending previews of the sketches, landscape thumbnails and progress with the painting of the orc. The commissioner has a huge interest in physiology and anatomy which helped me to understand the anatomy of an orc which is slightly different to that of a regular human.
Approaching the end, I created many layers with pure lighting and depth adjustments where I will add debris, flares and bokeh effects to create varying areas of focus.