Splinterlands Art Contest Entry: Adelade Brightwing
1. First thoughts
At first, I didn’t intend to post any of my drawings, let alone join the Splinterlands Art Contest. But as I was sketching from imagination a few days ago, I thought that this pose would make a pretty cool Adelade drawing (fun fact, Adelade was the first GFL I pulled). If I’m going to draw it anyway, I might as well share it!
I'm more or less self-taught, but I had my second drawing lesson last Sunday. I was forced to take art as a class in school until middle/high school, but I only started drawing by myself after high school. I was by no means talented. If you want to draw, just read "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. Then study. A lot. Even if you suck at drawing and have never drawn before, just read the book. It will change the way you see everything.
2. First Rough Sketch
3. Second Rough & Hand Revisions
4. References
For the past year, I’ve been trying to use references less and less so I have more of a reason to build up my visual library. I used four references, one of which is the official Adelade Brightwing artwork and another being my own hand.
4.1 Official Adelade Brightwing Artwork
4.2 Little Witch Academia Magic Frames
I also looked at these magic frames from Little Witch Academia to figure out the background/effects:
5. Cleaned Sketch
Here, I noticed that the wings didn’t actually connect to the shoulder blades. I was considering leaving it like this because I wanted the hand to “cut through” the line created by the wings. However, it looked too strange, so I fixed it at a later step.
6. Flat Colors
7. Eyes & Color Scheme
Went with a Triadic color scheme.
8. Wings & Magic
Wings are back! Also added some magic.
9. Background & Shading
Darkened the background for higher contrast. Also did a shading pass and added highlights.
10. Light Effects
Light effects. Originally, I wanted a lens flare effect; Although it's not exactly what I wanted, I like the outcome. Also added some feathers.
11. Finished Piece
Finished!
12. Notes
Upon review, I feel like the character looks quite a few years younger in my drawing; I think that has to do with the style/facial structure that I went with. Additionally, I wasn't sure whether I should be using yellow or purple reflected light because while the background is purple/blue, the light source is yellow. I went with mostly purple.
One stylistic choice as to leave the face fully lit. I think with the light source being from the back, the face would probably be cast in shadow. However, I thought it would look nicer fully lit. It would have looked more dynamic if I decided to cast it in shadow.
I also think I could have pushed the texture of the metal chest plate more. I didn't think too much about it when drawing, but I think it could be worth studying texture a little more.
With the highlights, I tried to give it a sense of three-dimensionality, especially on the hair. I think this effect can be most easily seen on the sliver of highlight on the end of the sleeve (which I forgot to make yellow until the very end!)
This is my first finished drawing with my new iPad. Got it last month and only really sketched with it. I used Procreate. Spent 8 hours and 38 minutes on this, according to Procreate.
I didn't go with a cleaner lineart because I couldn't get it to look right! Every time I tried lining from the rough sketch, it looked wrong. So, I decided to clean up the sketch instead. If you have any tips on how to actually do lineart, please share them.
Afterwards, I tried adding the card frame. I had to manually erase the image to get just the frame:
13. Custom Skins
I thought to make it a custom card, so every time I use Adelade, I get to see my drawing! I'll be using Requestly to reroute the image source from Splinterlands' official image to a cropped version of my image. If you want custom skins, download Requestly for free here and follow along!
We'll be using this image, because Splinterlands generates the text and stats over the card image. (Yes, I manually edited the card frame AGAIN.)
In Requestly, go HTTP Rules and click + New Rule
We want to redirect the URL from Adelade to our new drawing, so click Redirect Request
Find the image source
Right click Adelade Brightwing in the Collection page, and inspect element. You should see this.
Double click and copy the URL after src="; this is the original url Splinteralnds uses for the card image.Add URLs to Requestly
Original:https://d36mxiodymuqjm.cloudfront.net/cards_chaos/Adelade%20Brightwing.jpgMine:
https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/doloknight/23ynX4G23TMS2inkh8tJLoZ6c4cJhWQpq2EMmaq8DMYkuT82QKTs1FHPn5Wh5yAqquhrV.pngTest
14. Conclusion
I love magic, and I think drawing is the closest we can get to magic. I get to take an idea that exists in my mind alone and make it a shared experience. I imagine that magic would be just as challenging and rewarding as drawing if it were real!
With custom cards, you can mod pretty much any card fairly easily with Requestly. If you want to skip the hassle and just use my Adelade skin, download Requestly and click here to import the rule.
In case anyone on the Splinterlands team is reading this -- please, please, PLEASE release assets like card frames and backgrounds to make it easier to make custom cards.
As always, thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day.