Hello everyone and a good weekend to you.

At long last, with A Throw of the Dice , an illustration I painted quite a while ago has come out of non disclosure, here it comes in a better size for the community's pleasure (hopefully).

As usual, clicking increases the size.

This really is amazing. Can you tell us some more detail on how you created it?was it an actual painting or all digital? Details man!

Thank you Dennis.

It is digital, but painted from scratch, there are no photographic elements in the piece. Working on oil or acrylics (my traditional media of choice) would take to long to be feasible with FFG's deadlines (not to mention having to scan or photograph the piece).

If you have any question or curiosity feel free to ask, I'll be happy to answer.

I know nothing of art so plz excuse this question. You said it is all digital but that you "painted" it. What exactly does that mean? Can you discuss the process of creating an image like this. 'paint me' curious

I know nothing of art so plz excuse this question. You said it is all digital but that you "painted" it. What exactly does that mean? Can you discuss the process of creating an image like this. 'paint me' curious

Yes of course.

What I meant is that, when I work in digital, the file I have on my monitor is my canvas, and tablet and stylus are my brush and colors,what I do isn't really that different from what I did when I used oils (the only difference, sadly is that there isn't a physical original).

First thing I do, when I get an assignement is to research the scene and the characters, then I start working on a possible composition, often drawing thunbnails (small, very rough sketches); when I'm satisfied with one of them I draw (in digital) a bigger and more detailed sketch that I send in to the Art Director (for this stage I already use reference, models or photos of models, the reference isn't inserted in the piece, I just have it open on another monitor while I work, to be sure to get things like anatomy and light right).

If the AD requests chenges I make them and resubmit, if the sketch is approved I start working in color. I first import my drawing in Painter, where I paint the color base (Painter mimics in digital the 'feel' of traditional media, I like to use artist's oils ), after that I go back to Photoshop and start refining the piece :blending, painting the texture in (again, my textures are painted, not taken from photos), adding details, shadows and highlights…

Below is a detail of this same image at work-size, you can see the brush-strokes of my stylus.

I love when people have a talent that is literally beyond my realm of comprehension. What does your stylus look like? Does it actually have bristles like a paint brush or is it just a dull rubber blunt end like my ipad stylus.

Neither really, it's a Wacom stylus, it looks more or less like a big ballpoint pen (minus the ball).

Thank you for your enthusiasm.