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Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide Icon Meanings
What I’m hoping you’ll get out of this sketch note Getting clearer with the forms and my thinking
Anatomy Resources
THE TOOLS 8
What I used for this session. BLACK AND WHITE SET UP 24
I honestly don’t use many at all Separating materials into different layers
Photoshop
RENDERING 28
Procreate
The illusion of light
SAILING THE SEVEN SEAS? 11 Utilising planes
Key points to jump to in the walk-through 14 Having fun with hues and layer modes
Layer modes
2
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
DETAILS 41
Shape clean up
WHAT NOW? 48
3
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
THE SUBJECT
Original Post Original Sketch Note
Here’s the link to original Insta- And here’s the link to the original
gram post Instagram sketch note
Reference image
Here’s a link to the reference
image on Pinterest
The Subject 4
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
WHAT’S INCLUDED?
What you’ll get with this session
Ben Eblen’s
@ben_eblen_design
What’s included? 5
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
What’s included? 6
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
The Process
A deeper understanding of my
thought process while making this
particular painting.
Resources I recommend
Resources I recommend to dive
deeper into particular topics.
Adobe Photoshop CC
2022
I used this in the walk
through, but any standard XP Pen 15.9 pro
digital art software will do.
Pen Tablet
The Tools 8
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
BRUSHES
I honestly don’t use many at all
Photoshop
Brushes 9
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Procreate
Brushes 10
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
It’s ok, I get it, it’s to be expected really... But if you do find this useful and you or
hence this page. your artist mates are a bit strapped for
cash, feel free to pass it on to someone
But please keep in mind that this is a that you think might find some of this
companion to a much more in-depth info valuable, you have my blessing.
7+ hour walk-through with me narrating
and not designed to be a standalone Who am I kidding, you’ve probably already
piece of content. done that you cheeky bugger.
Available now on my
1:12 - Thinking about the 2D shapes 01:40 - Add gray background to judge
2:20 - ‘Smoothing’ in Photoshop values better
4:17 - Do Thumbnails if needed 1:15 - Multiply layer example
6:18 - Slow Down and simplify 2:40 - Thinking about the light source
10:05 - Introducing ‘Thinking in 3D’ and sphere demo
14:30 - Blocking in shadows with multiply
Pt 2 Line-work Clean Up 15:43 - Using masks with clipping masks
16:38 - Block in shadows of the face
1:00 - Line-work brush’s and free alter-
21:13 - Adding lighter values
natives
2:00 - What I’m thinking about when doing
Pt 5 Skin Colour
line-work (Look at others styles)
3:00 - Overlapping shapes 00:00 - Using ‘color’ layer mode to add
7:40 - Line-work demo colour to skin
24:00 - Hand simplification 01:45 - Adjusting the skin layer colour
33:00 - 3D model demo (Shoe stylization) 03:50 - building up colour variations and
41:00 - Knee example layer stacking
08:30 - Multiply layer mode for colour
variation
Pt 3 Local Colour Block In
13:25 - Alpha locking layers
00:30 - Clipping mask shape 14:20 - Refining the rendering by painting
00:40 - What is a clipping mask? on a ‘normal’ layer above the stacked
2:10 - What are we using clipping masks ‘colour’ layers
for? 33:15 - using ‘levels’ to do big changes
3:30 - Block out different ‘local’ values to values
35:30 - Explanation and recap of colour
process
I’m pretty quiet in this one, I’m using the 00:45 - Adjusting line-work colour
same principles from previous videos 2:15 - Merging everything
and just going to render town. So throw 02:40 - Multiply layer example
on a podcast or some music and watch 03:20 - Merging skin detail onto body
03:30 - Cleaning up and simplify shapes
Pt 7 Hoodie and overalls rendering
01:30 - Adjusting local colour of hoodie
Pt 10 Details and rim lights
02:00 - Adding shadows to hoodie
05:30 - Adding colour and rendering 00:00 - Colour dodge layer mode
hoodie 02:30 - Using the ‘Screen’ layer mode to
21:30 - Overalls shadows add rim-lights
24:30 - Refining the overalls values 20:25 - Final thoughts
32:09 - Using ‘screen’ layer mode to light-
en values
LET’S BEGIN...
Let’s begin... 14
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
THE REFERENCE
reference, I’m taking inspiration
from other’s styles as well.
Different Materials
The thing that got me interested about
this reference in the first place was the
pose, clothing and the introduction of a
‘prop’ (the speaker) I could play around
with.
The Reference 15
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
@a_haywoodphoto
adleyhaywood.com
Adley Haywood
Reference Photo
/maxgrecke
Artstation
Steph Euphoria
Viktor Titov
Artstation
@titovviktor
The Reference 16
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Initial Rough In
Multiple Passes
I’ll reduce the opacity of the initial sketch
and begin to clean up my thinking, which
in turn cleans up the shapes.
The Sketch 17
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
The Sketch 18
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Simplification
This is where style reference comes in
When it comes to simplification, I’m think- SUPER handy. Take a look at how other
ing about how to ‘iron out’ the details of artists solve different problems and
the reference. E.g. if there’s a crease, or test it out for yourself!
a bump in the reference, I’ll think about
how to simplify it, while still having it make
sense in the 3D world.
The Sketch 19
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Sketch Clean up 20
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Sketch Clean up 21
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Stylised Shapes
Steve Huston
Sketch Clean up 23
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
BLACK AND
WHITE SET UP
Values, values, values
RENDERING
The illusion of light
Studio Lighting
I landed on a more ‘studio’ style
lighting set up, with the key light a
little up and off center to show some
nice specular highlights on the face.
Rendering 28
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Rendering 29
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Wire-framing to understand
From the watch and shoes to the nose
and eyebrow crease, every object, form
and bump should be considered using
the same light logic.
Rendering 30
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Multiply = Darker
I use ‘Multiply’ for adding darker values, as
that’s what it does to the colour.
Rendering 31
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Specular Highlights
After the diffuse lighting is feeling
right, I’ll then start to experiment
with the specular reflections, partic-
ularly on the face as the clothes are
pretty ‘matte’.
Occlusion Shadows
I’ll also start to think about the
occlusion shadows (where the light
finds it hard to reach), particularly in
creases, or where two objects meet.
Rendering 33
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Rendering Resources
Here are a few resources I’ve found super
useful to dive deeper into rendering and
understanding how light works.
Marco Bucci
Particularly these
videos below... Sam Neilson
Fundamentals of
lighting course on
Shoolism
Rendering 34
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
COLOUR
I’ll begin blocking in some colour with the…wait
for it ‘Color’ layer mode. This layer mode ads a
hue to the gray scale below but doesn’t affect
Having fun with hues and layer the values which is handy to start with.
modes
Colour 35
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Lasso Tool
The best way I’ve found utilise the
color layer mode on a character is
to select each different material
and give it a base colour like the
skin here.
Colour 36
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Colour 37
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Layer modes
Now that we have some colour to play
with, exploring more layer modes are a
great way to speed up the painting pro-
cess. I could theoretically get the same Normal
results using a normal layer and straight
up painting on one layer, but stacking
multiple layers with different layer modes
on top of one another gives me a bunch
of freedom to experiment.
#f55757
Colour dodge layer mode Multiply layer mode Screen layer mode
Colour 38
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Layer Stacking
Don’t be afraid to stack multiple layers
with different layer modes to get the result
you’re after. Here you can see the gradual
layering of different colour modes (col-
Layer Mode: Color
or, multiple, screen) then to the eventual
merged ‘normal’ layer where I just paint.
Colour 39
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Colour 40
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Rim Light
Rim lights tend to help ‘pop’ the character
out from the background. Here I’ve used a
blue and purple light source using a new
layer set to ‘screen’.
Materials Matter
Note how Matte the jumper material
appears vs how shiny the lettering on
the hoodie appears. I try to take note
of that and think about the materials
in isolation.
+ =
Details 42
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Cleaning up the outside edge
Details 43
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Details 44
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Details 45
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Details 46
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
Details 47
Ben Eblen’s Illustrating a Stylized Character - The Field Guide
WHAT NOW?
Come join me on my artistic
journey where I’m sharing my
learnings
@ben_eblen_design
beneblen.com
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What now? 48