Martian of the Month plus Process Guide!

Today I have a new creature for the forthcoming Martian of the Month project, the "Woolly Cave Spider" as well as a Process Guide! 

For the past 2 months I have been refining the process for these new space opera themed monsters and characters, and I am still trying out a few different approaches!

In the process guide above you can see one of the new methods of work that I am experimenting with (in my mad quest to get below 3.5 hours per character design).  It isn't quite working yet, but I am very much enjoying the chaos!  

I began this image with a barebones digital sketch over a rough ink scribble, and instead of then transferring down to paper and working in traditional pencil as normal, I went straight in with digital linework, (which is a big departure from my normal work process).  This means that the messy exploration that I usually do with a trusty Kimberly's 2H pencil, is done digitally instead. You can see this messy chaos in the second and third frames above, where I first lay in values with multiply layers, and then color using Multiply and Soft Light. 

Going fully digital doesn't save as much time as you might expect, since that exploration has to happen somewhere, but it does save a little time. I am still working out wether it is going to be worth the trade-off for what this particular product needs. 

The other new addition to the method is using Hard Light layers, which I have always found to be tricky layer to use without burning out the image. They are essentially color at 2x speed and for me, feels like driving a formula-1 race car after have spent the last 20 years driving a tractor.  

I hope you enjoy this one! Next month we plan to do the full reveal of the project so stay tuned! There is a ton more coming this year.