Frank Frazeta Tutorial

8/12/2019 Frank Frazeta Tutorial

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LOOK TO FRAZETTAFOR INSPIRATIONTap into Frank Frazettas iconic style of painting without ending up with apoor copy. Jean-Sbastien Rossbach tips his hat to the master artist

dont know a single fantasy

artist who isnt influenced by

the art of Frank Frazetta. A

combination of his innate

sense of movement, the energy, the raw

pulse of life he put in his images, his skills

in anatomy and storytelling propelled

him to the top of the illustrators pyramid.Im going to show you my way of

interpreting the legacy this artiste

extraordinaire has left us.

Many have tried to steal his magic

potion, but no one has been able to give

their art even half the power that Frazetta

could. So my goal isnt to copy Frazettas

art. Instead, I ask myself what elements of

the great mans production I like, and see

if I can incorporate them into my own

workflow. And what better subject couldthere be than a good old Conan piece?

If you look closer at early Frazetta

pieces youll see how he likes to draw

Ihuman figures like animals. His guys can

look like gorillas. I want to draw a Conan

thrusting his chest out like a gorilla. Youll

also often find him at the top of a triangle

composition, with an axe or sword in his

hands. I like it a lot because its a simple

type of composition and puts the focus

on the main character, giving himpotency and strength. I know Ill add a

couple of enemies at his feet, but for now

I dont know what theyll look like.

2 Focus on movementThe aim is to first nail the goodmovement of the body, so I dont pay

much attention to the muscles and

volumes. Id do the same at a life-drawing

session, and Id begin with a big charcoal

or graphite pencil. Big

brushes are easy-going

they allow the shapes to

appear in front of your

eyes. Afterwards Ill

rescale anything thats

too big or small, and

sculpt the shapes

more precisely with

the eraser.

3 Add a backgroundNow that I have an idea of mycharacters gesture, I begin to add some

background to the piece.

Again, the main character is

the focus of the painting, so

Ill only use fog and clouds,

but the clouds are important

and theyll help me build my

composition. From the very

beginning I knew that Id

put my Conan on top of a

small promontory.

1 The initial sketchBecause the composition is sosimple and Im creating the image in

Photoshop (enabling me to correct my

composition at any time), I begin drawingConan directly. Ive already done a couple

of sketches to see what movement would

be the most interesting, even

though I already have a good

idea of what Im going to do

anyway. I use a bold

diamond brush a personal

favourite for starting to

draw the shapes and

anatomy. It means I can

wander around the canvas

and not be too precise.

4

Generate energy

My composition now appearsclearly. Its a triangle, and inside this

triangle Ill use curvy lines that rise and

fall from to the bottom left of the plane

to the upper right. These wavy lines will

bring a sense of energy and movement to

my image. I didnt do a proper thumbnail

of the composition in the beginning

because I knew where I was going, but

I strongly recommend that you do so

before starting a painting. The

composition is the most important step

in the construction of an image.

October 201074

Workshops

Jean-SbastienRossbachCOUNTRY:France

Jean-

Sbastien has

worked for

many major

companies

including Marvel,

Wizards of the Coast and

Ubisoft. Hes also the

author of Merlin, an art

book that retells the

legendary wizards story.

livingrope.free.fr

DVD AssetsThe files you need

are on your DVD inthe Jean-Sbastien

Rossbach folder in the

Workshops section.

PHOTOSHOP

DIAMOND BRUSH

The brush I use the most

is a big diamond brush.

Its very useful for

roughing out the first

sketches. I also like the

marks it makes when you

simply paint a subject.

UNI61.tut_frazetta 74 8/4/10 7:38:27 PM


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October 2010 75

In depth Look to Frazetta



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7 Shine a lightNow I need to identify the light sources. Light is a powerful toolthat helps create atmosphere, and a character wont look the same if

you throw a light on them that comes from the bottom or from the

top. I decide to put a narrow yet diffuse spot on Conans chest, because

its the images focal point. I keep par t of his face in shadow so that his

eyes appear bright and mad-looking. His axe is almost completely

treated like a shadow puppet, to emphasise the threat that it represents.

8

Turn up the volume

Each part of the body, each muscleand each item of clothing must be treated

according to the light source. This is what

will help you build the volumes in the

piece. In addition, you wont become lost

in your image, not knowing what to do

next. You can see that Im working in

black and white here. Ill add colour later,

but first I want to focus on the values of

grey. Using this technique I have greater

control of the full and empty spaces I have

in my image. If Id used colours from the

beginning, they may have distracted me,

and I dont want that to happen.

5

Build the anatomy

Now that Ive blocked themovement of my character and have a

good idea of what my composition will

be, I can begin to refine the anatomy. The

anatomy is the main problem to solve in

an image like this. If youre not too

comfortable with it, I recommend that

you use a photo reference. In fact this is

what I do now: because Im not sure what

his arms and hands should look like. I

take a naked photo of myself (dont even

think about asking me to show it my

woman would kill me!) and it helps me to

see where the elbow is in relation to the

head, for example. I then use Photoshops

Warp tool to adjust his pose.

6 The beast withinHere Im focusing on Conans chestbecause its what I want to express: the

beast inside the man! I dont want to

make him look too smart

either, so I begin to draw his

eyes bulging. Hes also bitinghis lip because of the effort

involved (this is a technique

you often see in Simon Bisleys

art, for example). The man-

animal is appearing slowly in

front of me.

9 Make enemiesAt this point my Conanlooks rather stupid with his axe

raised and not a single head to

crush in front of him. He

screams for battle: Crom!

Where are my enemies? To be

perfectly honest, right now I still

dont have a clue what hisopponents will look like. But the

composition seen from the

abstract angle will help me in

my task. Lets say that theyre

humanoids, reptile-like with

long arms and maybe

something of a toad or a lizard

in their faces. I begin to draw

their shapes very loosely

something between a reptile and

a man. The good thing with

monsters is that you dont have

to worry too much about their

anatomy; the odder they are, the

cooler they look!

10Keep to yourcompositionThe main thing I want to focus

on is my composition, so I try

to sit the enemies on strong

lines that complement my

initial wavy compositionwithout breaking it. I first draw

shadows and then build the

lights slowly. As I paint, I

decide on the necessary details.

The ribcage of the first monster

in the foreground is very

defined; I want to see his bones

under the skin. The arms are

very long and the hands have

only four hooked fingers. I flip

the image horizontally to see

where Ive made mistakes.

October 201076

Workshops

Calibratethe

screenwithLevels

Ctrl+L(PC)Cmd+L(Ma

c)

PhotoshopsLevelsare

usefulwhenImnotsur

e

ofthecalibrationof

myscreen.



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Pay tribute to the master artist

The guy in the foreground is a tribute to Frazetta, in the way that hes bending hisbody over. I also chose to show his backside, which is something that you only see in

Frazetta pieces. It reflects the freedom the creative minds had back in the 70s. Finally, I

end up adding spikes on their heads and shoulders, and a thin carapace over their flesh.

Not anything too Frazetta-ish this time, but more to my personal taste.

12Separate shapesWhile Im refining the details, I decide to add abacklight to the monster in the foreground. This will help

separate his shape from the texture of the promontory

behind him. Its always good to add a second light source

that comes from the back of the characters. Its used to

outline the silhouette and make it pop to the foreground.

13Add colourThere are many ways to colour animage in Photoshop. You can use the

Colour Balance tool, create a Curves layer,

apply colours with an Overlay layer and

so on. I decide to use a handful of

methods, starting with a coloured texturethat I created earlier. Im using it as an

Overlay layer that enables me to add a

painted texture to my image as well as

some colour indications. After that, I use

the Colour Balance tool to give a

yellowish tint to the whole image.

Usually, I use blue and cyan for the dark

values, and yellow and red for highlights.

14Celebrate CurvesIm not too fond of the coloursstraight out of the tube blue for the sky,

pink for the flesh, that kind of thing. If,like me, you want to keep the fun

flowing, try the Cur ves tool. Curves is a

great way to achieve results that you

would never have imagined, because it

acts directly on the RGB channels. And

most of the time youll produce

interesting and surprising results. Finally,

Im adding colours on an overlay layer.

15The painted touchIve lost count of how many timessomeone has asked me what my secret is

for making an illustration look like its

painted. I do paint my images digitally,

but of course they mean real oil paint!

Again, there are a couple of simple

techniques to achieve this. You can make

a pass on Painter and add some digital

varnish to your image, or you can also

import it into ArtRage and paint over

some areas to add the painted touch here

and there (I do this sometimes). You can

also search for painted textures onlineand apply them on your image on an

Overlay layer, which is what Ive done

here. Dont hesitate to grab online

textures for everything: clouds for the sky,

rusted metal for the armour, fish scales

for your dragons, concrete, stone for your

mountains Textures are a time-saver,

but remember to use them only for the

finishing touch, to add the kind of detail

that will make a difference. Dont begin

an image with the details start with the

overall composition!

October 2010 77

In depth Look to Frazetta

The CurveslayerAt the bottom of the

Layers bar is a round

icon labelled Create New

Fill Or Adjustment Layer.

Select this icon, choose

Curves and play with the

red, green and blue

values to achieve some

surprising colour

results. This Adjustment

layer is also interesting

because it acts like a

mask, enabling you to

erase unwanted areas

with the Brush tool.

Composeyour imageI know, this sounds very

basic, but even pros tend

to forget this simple yet

mandatory step. Dont

be too quick take the

time to think about your

composition. What big

shape will you use to

build your scene? A

triangle, a square or a

circle maybe? And inside

this big shape, what linesof movement will you

choose? Composition is

the first step and the

most important decision

you will have to make.


Frank Frazeta Tutorial

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