Craig Elliott Gallery

The second card I did for the Warcraft card game set Scourgewar, is titled "Mighty Shadow Protection Potion."  Here is an image of some sketches, and 2 of the final versions of the painting.  This is a digital painting in Photoshop.

Enjoy! 

Sketch on paper in pastel and Prismacolor pencil, 10" x 10" Final painting, digital The final warcraft card as printed!

This isn't a post about how to walk down stairs, don't worry!  By stairstepping, I mean a way to see subforms on any shape.  This way of seeing forms is based of the simple shape of stairs, and when taken to a more sophisticated level resembles the ridges and steps in a shale rock face.  One of the artists who most clearly uses this idea is the american illustrator Dean Cornwell. His drawings show this very clearly, and he uses this in his paintings as well, but blends the simple geometry more to create a more finished realistic look.

The basic concept is to imagine a tubular or other basic solid and then carve steps into it that will be in shadow. This technique is great for all sorts of subjects such as trees, rock, buildings and the shapes on an animal or human.

Below are some of the basic steps of this technique as applied to a human figure:

Figures drawn, and basic outline of steps drawn in line

Steps filled in with shadow valueThe shadow areas are blended where the edges are softHighlights and smaller details are added

Blizzard has finally released the 4 cards I painted last year in the set called Scourgewar, as part of their wildly popular trading card game based on The World of Warcraft MMORG.

Ill be posting the sketches and process leading up to these cards in the next few weeks. Here is the first card called "Crimson Cranium Crusher" -Great name, Blizzard!  

Crimson Cranium Crusher sketch, Watercolor and Prismacolor pencil on Rives BFK 9" x12" Crimson Cranium Crusher sketch, Watercolor and Prismacolor pencil on Rives BFK 1.5" x1.5"

Crimson Cranium Crusher sketch, Graphite on Cotton Bristol 5" x 5" Crimson Cranium Crusher, Alternate Finish, Digital 

Crimson Cranium Crusher, Printed Card © Blizzard Entertainment

Here, in the final card, the hand is changed in hue to a blue to match the creature and composed in the frame of the card. 

One way to simplify the process and not become overwhelmed by all the parts of what you are trying to draw is to do something I call "Sculpting" the form.  So named because it is the same proceedure that you would use if you were sculpting something out of clay. Starting with the most simple masses you can see in what you are drawing you gradually, step by step, add more masses from large all the way down to small.  

I have seen the students of Howard Pyle, the father of American illustration, use this technique very often and believe he must have taught something similar in his classes.  N.C. Wyeth, Harvey Dunn and their students use this all the time.  In addition to this being a drawing proceedure, it is also a way to indicate things further in the distance.  The earlier in the process (largest forms and least detail) the drawing is the further away it will appear.  

I have chosen a head from a Dean Cornwell painting to illustrate this idea:

1. The left sketch shows the first stage with very large masses, basically an egg of clay with a shelf on it for the eye area.  this would be a good stage to stop at for distant figures and crowds.  Only 2 values are used here.

2. The next sketch shows the addition of the nose, mouth and cheek subforms.  There is also 1 slightly darker value introduced.  The best use of this stage of figure is any mid-ground figure of medium importance. 

3. Here the same values as the last drawing are used, but smaller forms like the eyes and lip subforms as well as details around the neck are added. Local values (such as the lips, pupils of the eyes and eyebrows) are added to some degree as well. This stage would work well for foreground figures that are not the main focus of the piece. 

4. This is the final stage used for close up or focal point figures in paintings, with the final addition of a accent dark and light highlight value.

Dean Cornwell head study by Craig Elliott

Many people ask me how I draw so quickly, the short, and snarky, answer might be "practice", but that isn't very helpful!  The long answer might include perspective, anatomy, technique etc. But, the thing that adds most to my speed when drawing is something called a "Mass Conception". Essentially, what the three dimensional form you are drawing is IN YOUR HEAD before you draw it. Usually, these forms are a nearly perfect geometric solid like a cylinder, cone, sphere, or taurus. The great draftspersons of all time use this idea.

I drew up 3 fingers that display this principle and exaggerate it so you can see it more easily. The knuckles of the fingers illustrate my point. The first finger uses a taurus and is an example of a mass conception used by the great J.C. Leyendecker.  The second, a kind of flattened cube, is one of the most common used by many artists, but can be seen clearly in Frank Frazetta's work. The third is a prism- a fairly unique conception used by Michelangelo on some of his Medici sculptures. You can find many more out there and even invent your own.  

The point is to actually have a shape in mind that is simple enough to draw BEFORE you draw it. Of course you need to know how to draw all of these basic forms already in perspective, and light them.  Remember drawing all those spheres and cones you drew before you were allowed to do life drawing in school? Well, that's why!  Most teachers have forgotten why, and the students get bored and frustrated, not knowing why they are doing what they are doing. 

Enjoy!
Study of hands by J.C. Leyendecker