GRcade Illustrator Club

It started just over a month ago with a few ideas buzzing around in my head. Looking at some art from the game and in Hyrule Historia. Before quickly sketching down the most prominent idea on the computer.



I obviously wanted to play up the time travelling side of things. Why wouldnt you? It made sense to me to have the key to this, the Master Sword, as the center piece with Ganondorf the ever looming presence. But I had to work out what would best to represent each side. I felt that by having the Deku Tree and Ganon either side you effectively had the beginning and the end framing it. And it made sense to have adult Links side feature the minions of Ganon and the darker things of Hyrule. Allowing the cast of characters you meet as young Link to feature in his side. It was just a matter of trying to see what felt best where. at the beginning I didn't even consider the Ocarina itself. For a while early on I thought about having the bosses feature behind Ganondorf but realised early on it felt unbalanced. I considered putting them in with or instead of the other monster but I thought if I couldnt feature them all it would be best not to show any of them. Plus using the castles was far too a good idea. Heck even Nintendo did it!



So eventually I started the real drawing....



Which took a lot of time. But I was hoping I'd find some room to feature a few more things as I drew it out larger. Also gave me the chance to just play with the placement with the different objects. I was very concerned how I would layer the leaves of the tree and even how I would draw it knowing the colouring process. I was also not sure how I'd fit the castles in, but I came up with a little perspective tick that could help if things got tight.



So after a couple of attempts and a weeks work I finished the pencil drawing.




However, that only meant it was time to break open the pens! I usually do my drawings with a dip pen but I decided to try something new to see if it would change the way I drew it.



I really love the bold shadows of the Majoras Mask art so wanted to use that rather then rely too much on lines to create form. But wasn't sure how far too push it. So here I'm playing with how the shadows might work. In the end I felt putting them on the faces was too much and would make an already busy and cluttered image even more so.



One of the biggest problems I face was working out how to deal with Rutos head. Namely the way the colour changes, the way the I use line and colour doesn't work naturally with this so I had to come up with a way showing it that fitted. In the end I added some texture to it to help disguise the line that separates the colours. So after another week the ink drawing was done. But it was only at this point I 100% decided to add the Ocarina. I had to find just the right size so it didn't obstruct the Triforce. But didn't look so tiny it was pointless.




Having then scanned the drawing in. I began the colouring process. I'm no photoshop expert really. But I've developed a way of getting things done and knew I'd need everything I'd done before and more to finish this. I immediately worked on the leaves of the Deku tree as I knew I'd need to make sure that worked first. I must admit I was well chuffed with the outcome. It felt like it had enough detail but wasn't so busy that it catches the eye. So it just drifts into the background a bit.



Apart from the usual issues of colouring it in I had many a decision to make on the correct colours to use. Then finding a balance between the sheer amount of colours. Right up till near the end the Poes eyes were red, like the official artwork for the game. However, the in game versions had white eyes. So I went with that. I basically did this with everything, checking the officially produced art with concepts and the in game visuals. Of both the original and 3DS versions. I also knew that getting the skin tone was vital.