How Do I do It You Ask?

I have had several questions on how I create my pictures, so I thought I would put together this page to take you through step by step how I create one of my pics.

In other words, how do I go from...

This... ---------To This.

____

 

How? Photoshop! And a whole lot of elbow grease! I am only familiar with Adobe Photoshop. Sorry if you don’t have it, you don’t know what you’re missing! I imagine that other photo altering programs will allow you to use my techniques, as long as they have the ability to create and manipulate layers. Yes, LAYERS are the magic ingredient.

First before anything else you need inspiration! Okay, you will also need a computer with Photoshop or equivalent. You will need a scanner, digital camera, video capture ability, or some other source for original show pictures. I use the crudest possible method, my VCR, digital camera, and my old Voltron tapes.

The inspiration for this picture came from my love of the old Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Meeting on the Turret Stairs hangs by my bed. This genre was all about the romantic notion of forbidden love and longing set in Arthurian times. (Sort of sound familiar?) So what better source of inspiration than to put my two favorite characters, who are also suffering from forbidden love, into these paintings.

The original painting is Romeo and Juilet by Sir Frank Dicksee. So much happened on that balcony of Juilet's. I imagine this is Romeo leaving after spending the night with Juilet.

Juilet
"Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale."

Romeo
"It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die."

In my illustrations for my fan fictions I instead start with a crude sketch, just a basic line drawing getting the placement of the characters and mood. Here is the sketch for A Nice Quiet Breakfast, to give you an idea.

(Click on the pictures to see a larger version.)

Now I need screenshots! My method, which works fine for me, is to sit down in front of my TV with my digital camera, put in a Voltron tape and shoot away. The pictures aren’t as good as if I had a capture device for my computer. But they are good enough. There are also many pictures on the web but don’t use them without permission first, although most pictures on the web don't have clear enough detail for what I need. Get lots of pictures, profiles, front shots, and everything in between. Try and get the various emotions too. Don't forget to get shots with no people in them. The backgrounds set the scene into the show. Landscapes, castle shots, and interiors are all good to have. The bonus of all this is I get to re-familiarize myself with the show, maybe even taking notice of things I didn’t see before.

Okay, now I have my inspiration picture or sketch and a file overflowing with screenshots. On to the fun part. (If I could draw and make them look like themselves I could skip all this. Oh well, I can’t have everything.) So, I look at my inspiration and then find somewhere in my screenshots, faces that fit.

This picture of Allura kissing Lance is one I have used in many pictures. I cut her out of the picture so she is ready to kiss anyone I chose. Sorry Lance, nothing personal.

I open everything in Photoshop. I will almost definitely have to resize, flip, and rotate the faces to fit the inspiration picture. This is the tedious part but the result is well worth the effort. Once I have found a good enough match, I copy and paste my faces onto the original, making each face it's own layer. Don’t forget to label your layers! You’ll thank me later. (Keith face, Allura face, etc.). Now with them all in one document, on different layers, I can move them around independently to get the best placement. Yes, it looks stupid. But we're a long way from being done.

Now I create a new layer for each character. On these layers I make alterations to the faces and draw the bodies, keeping each character on its own layer. Now I can draw over the faces using the image beneath as a template. I suppose you can say it’s computer-age tracing. Be sure not to alter the original faces or the background. You will want to keep them clean for future reference. If you mess up just erase on the layer you're using and see the face again. (Learned this one the hard way!) So I draw over the faces to make them match and look connected.

Now for the bodies. Okay, I have to admit I have studied art and life drawing so drawing bodies is nothing new to me. Drawing with a mouse, well that’s new and it took some getting used to. I draw in the bodies as I imagine they should go.

Okay that’s a start. But I like muscles so I snap my fingers...

Now were talking! Keith as romance novel book cover material! Keith has been busy working out with Hunk in my world. All right, yes this took a while to do. If you're not familiar with anatomy I would suggest looking at art books and pictures on the web to see how we are put together.

"What do you think you are doing!" Nanny comes barreling up to my desk. "What! What have you done to my baby? she's... she’s nude! Not to mention kissing that... that... HOOLIGAN!" Nanny falls to the floor in a dead faint.

Okay, okay. Allura, it's time to get some clothes on. I made a new layer and called it gown. On this layer I drew back in the chemise that she is wearing. I made all the other layers transparent so I could see the original art below. Say another cheer for layers! Soon I have her gown.

But heck now you can't see all the work below. Going from the original inspiration picture they have just... well... spent the night together. So I use a little artistic license. It's my world after all. I make the layer semi-transparent.

Now I need to get this picture out of Verona and onto Arus. I made a copy of the background and erased Verona from the horizon. Then I went back to my screenshots looking for the perfect setting. I made a new layer, called it horizon and put it behind my new background layer and pasted the resized Arusian landscape into it. Only about one quarter of what you see is the size of the original. I had to copy and paste sections together to fill in all the space I needed and then softened all the seams. Then I played with the color balance till I was happy. The result... they are now on Arus! I had to adjust the color balance and brightness on the background copy in order to get it to match the new saturated cartoon color backdrop. I also start adding more shadows to ground the characters into the picture.

I did try to change the background into the Castle of Lions but it never looked right so I gave up on that and kept it the Capulet home. Maybe they're visiting some old ruin. Maybe it’s just a dream. I’ll let you decide that one.

Now we're looking almost done. Oh my god! The hair! How could I have forgotten the hair! Yep, you guessed it a new layer, I called it hair. I look at my screenshots of Allura’s and Keith's hair while drawing it in. After a while, I’m happy with my result.

I can’t tell you how long I fought with that stupid boot of Keith’s. It drove me bonkers. I finally gave up and decided to just copy and paste several sections of the plant in the foreground to cover it up. Out of sight out of mind. More tweaking of colors on all the layers to get everything to match and I played with the transparency of Allura’s gown.

And that’s it! All done. Well done enough. I could keep nit-picking about stuff in it. But, who has time for that? I've got fiction to write!

I hope this has helped to give you an idea of how I create my art. There is a lot to it, but if you’re motivated enough, give it a try. If not, at least you now have an idea how it all comes together.

Does someone want to wake Nanny for me?

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