Gallery of Shadows and Reflections

So, I thought I would put together a little tutorial on how I create the character portraits for my weekly Discounted Character Portrait Days. I create these images in Gimp using a Wacom tablet; this tutorial will focus more on technique and less on the technical aspects of the program and tablet.

This is a portrait of timelord1's character Jaerus. She gave me a detailed description and a picture reference for his armor, which can be found here under the first character description. She also specified that she pictures Jonathon Rhys-Meyers in the role, so that gave me an idea of what the character will look like.

Click image for full size.



The very first thing I do is scour the web for references. As she has given an actor as a reference, I look for images of him. In other character portraits, I try to think of appropriate actors/actresses and use them as references. I don't always aim for a strict likeness; sometimes the reference is used very loosely just to give a *feel* of the character. But in this instance, I'm trying to give more of an impression that the characterresembles the actor, without really going for a tight likeness.

( There are a LOT of images under cut. )