Sam, Stellaron Hunter
Taking a character from the developer miHoYo’s game, Honkai Star Rail, I wanted to translate their design into a familiar style utilizing a dynamic pose and a heavy illustration style I am comfortable with. When considering the initial mockups for the illustration, I think about the many elements that converge towards the overall storytelling of the image. Sam is an incredibly straightforward and powerful soldier, currently a member of a mysterious organization that acts as a welcome measure of simplicity amidst their strange peers. Below is a pose I settled on, a sort of charge with a direct P.O.V in allusion to the no-nonsense nature of the character.
Going through the drawing process, I begin to make tweaks that deviate from the original pose, mainly pertaining to the energy that goes into the pose itself. The original pose had a level of intensity that, while fitting for the character, also contradicted how I viewed Sam. While they are incredibly powerful, they are not wasteful. There’s a measure of dignity I sensed from a character who only leaves chaos in their wake. In my mind, I saw Sam enveloped in flame and smoke while retaining a stoic and commanding visage. Below is the result of the beginning of my vision. I intentionally left portions of Sam’s body undrawn, as to indicate to myself in the future the extent of the flames that would envelop them.
In an attempt to further my vision, I began to fill in the background with flame. While it helped me further visualize the potential end product, something felt missing. Sam himself felt lacking in detail, and I disliked what I had drawn for the background itself. I felt there could be more chaos, more visual noise that could be juxtaposed by the character himself.
I began to fill in more details on Sam’s armor, utilizing light hatching to add a measure of texture. Hatching is something that I’m not entirely confident in, however I had learnt a lot about it as a result of working on this project. I had always admired mangaka and their abilities to propose a sense of depth and shadow with line art and sketches alone. It’s this admiration that propels me to experiment and try again and again to improve myself. I felt I was getting close to an end result that would satisfy me, but I still needed to do something about my dissatisfaction with the background.
I began to experiment with Clip Studio Paint, the program I primarily utilized. The program has access to a large catalogue of custom-made brushes, but more importantly, a way to edit them as well. After tweaking, I ultimately came across a patterning I liked, and one that I thought would provide a very unique contrast that would create enough noise for the eye to be drawn elsewhere. I liked how it seemed like Sam was ripping the smoke, and so I went all in on that idea, having the background swirl around and past him, creating a clear opening with them at its heart. Below is the final result of this project.
