Tutorial: Demon Portrait
A new week, a new tutorial! It’s Tutorial Tuesday again at idrawdigital. This week we’re going to create a demon portrait. Most demons are created in the likeness of the Christian interpretation of what Satan would look like – horns on the head, rugged skin, goat hooves for feet, jagged teeth and claws, etc. Since this is the most common ‘look’ for a traditional demon, we’ll take a stab at recreating it. Fire up your copy of Photoshop or drawing software, and let’s get to work.
The Wireframe Sketch
Start off with a basic headshape. Since the demon has very few human-like qualities, you can modify the anatomy slightly to make them appear more outer-worldly. For this example, I’m not straying too far from a human head.
Note the jawline, forehead, eyeline and nose/mouth positions. You can mess around with these proportions to really create a weird or monstrous looking demon head.
Next, we’ll sketch in some basic details – eyes, ear position and then the nose, mouth brows, etc.
I decided I want the demon to be baring his teeth, so I modified the headshape to accommodate. The open mouth shows a set of ragged teeth. I also drew an upturned nose and some heavy bone ridges leading to the forehead. This guy is going to be UGLY.
Refine your parts – I added a tongue in the mouth, and indicated where the horns would stick out from the head. I added some rolls of skin on the back of the neck, and the demon’s shoulder in the foreground.
Create a pointy Spock-like ear and extend the curves of your demon’s horns.
Cleaning up the Drawing
Now that we have our basic wireframe portrait done, we can focus on finishing up the details. Create a new layer for the “inking” portion of the tutorial.
Start with a thick brush and trace the outer contour lines of your drawing. Vary your thicknesses depending on the distance in relation to the viewer – the shoulder closest to the reader has the thickest outline, and the shoulder furthest from the reader has a thinner outline.
With a smaller brush, begin filling in the details you started with in the wireframe – ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth. Add as much detail as you like, and make any changes to the original sketch for your final piece.
Let’s add some dramatic shadows on the left side of the face. Your light source should be coming from the right side, and should be fairly bright. Our demon is squinting and blinded by the light – and he’s pissed!
Add in some final details like hairs, wrinkles, etc – and you’re pretty there. He’s big, he’s grotesque, and he’s done! You’ve created your own demon portrait – I hope yours is even UGLIER than mine! That’s it for this week’s tutorial – next week, I’ll show you how to render the female character’s form, which differs a lot from the traditional male form most male artists are accustomed to drawing.
