Good morning all. In a strange turn of events, Ive been cast to play John Constantine in a Batman fan film shooting in Minnesota this coming spring/summer. As a huge fan of the character, this is super exciting for me, and seemed like a solid reason to use him as the focus of a sketch from the other day.
When illustrating, especially comics or comic-related content, I tend to get really hung up on rendering and detail. The goal of this piece, as has been my overall goal lately, was to loosen up a bit. So first, the initial sketch. John Constantine, all trench coat, smoke and spite.
Next it was time to drop in the base colors on him.
Once I was happy with the initial rendering, it was time to drop out the initial sketch layer and add some black linework, which was purposefully kept pretty minimal.
I wasn’t crystal clear on what I wanted to do with the background when I started the piece, but I decided on a texture-heavy street scene at night. So time to block it out!
As you can see, the starting palette of the background really only uses colors already present in John. Hopefully this subtly reenforces the idea John belongs to the city, and vice versa. Next up was more blocking, starting to play with some lighting as well.
Now at this point the general composition is basically complete, still using a really limited palette. So it’s time to add some movement and color. This idea was super rough, basically to add the idea of traffic to the piece, but also implying that John is either unconcerned with it, or I effected by it.
And finally, some last detail work. Little bit of graffiti on the building, and some random white splashes, which would be an ideal spot for the title treatment, were this a cover for the comic.
I could for sure spend more time on this, adding more depth or interest to the sky and background. But for a quick sketch piece, I’m fairly content with how it turned out. Anyway, hope y’all have a lovely weekend. Thanks for stopping by!
Really nice, for a relatively quick art piece, you captured the character well and I like the motions in the piece.... Also wow! You are going to play John Constantine !!! :D :D :D I wanna see the movie when it's done please hahahaha so cool !!!
Congrats for curie, too <3
Greetings SwardDraws , your work is fantastic and versatile. Your drawing was giving a twist that I love in every moment that you were adding every detail. I liked the character of your drawing with style and elegance. The colors, the streets, the graffiti, the cigarette and the smoke in movements was incredible. You have a great talent. Thank you for sharing your excellent work. Successes. Have a great day.
I really like that red speeding lines. I feel that it adds a lot of life and flavour into this picture.
Congratulations for your curie vote ^_^.
Wish you all the best with the film. Love the sketch too
Hi swarddraws,
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I love how it turned out as well... I love the colors on the road and also the graffiti on the wall. John seems to be walking like a boss!!😀
Congrats on your casting!!
Nice work, very well worked details for this style, the shoes are clean and the overcoat has its real touch.
Congratulations bro!
Wow Those final brush lines of traffic light really seal the deal! That is a great piece! Constantine is such a stylish character. They really didn't do him justice in the Hollywood movie... I'm sure you'll do better!
if you ate it with this photo too original friend @swarddraws you put it step by step very well detailed cigar must not miss, I liked everything in the photo has a great talent and a good imagination God bless you @neymarth10
hello @swarddraws if you are good at painting I like the colors that you put on the image of constatine, the atmosphere, everything sticks, it attracts a lot of attention the image you will be very famous with this spectacular image @neymarth11
As I read this, I look at the TV and I'm watching the version of Constantine played by Keanu Reeves, what a coincidence. Your work here is magnificent, you have a lot of talent, I'll give you upvote. Congratulations!
I can understand that you are 'fairly content' with how it turned out :) It is stunning! I love to see the progress and also short description of what you've done as it helps me to understand what you were trying to achieve. I like the idea of the same colors to reinforce that John belongs to the city. You truly achieved that. My favorite part of the comic would be the road. It's so dynamic and the colors are great!
Congratulations on getting a role! :)
Greetings SwardDraws, the step by step of your piece that you showed us I love. John with his coat and cigarette is fantastic. The colors you used were spectacular. You made everything look real as if I was on the street watching John on the streets live. My favorite part was every friend is that you got an excellent job. Have a great day.
You got some great sketching skills! If you don't mind me asking, what are you using to draw this out? Are you doing it by hand and then scanning it in? Or is it Photoshop and Illustrator? I've always been fascinated by this because one, I can't do it. And two, the final product is always so polished but I can't get my head around how it's done hahaha.
Thanks for sharing each step of the way. It was a great breakdown. Those stripes of red really brought it out for me. I think you did a wonderful job.