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Welcome to the STEP BY STEP section of the site! Here you'll see how Matt Busch illustrated this dramatic image of Darth Maul zooming across the Tattooine desert on his Sith Speeder! From early design sketches to the final details, you'll see it all!
A detail of the first sketch. "I start with rough sketches. Everyone has a different style for doing roughs, whether it be pencils, charcoal on gray paper, or markers. While my roughs may be tighter than most, I'm actually using simple materials- 8 1/2" by 11" typing paper and a ball point pen!"
A complete look at the first sketch. "Here we see a menacing look at Darth Maul. While I'm happy with the sketch, everybody and their brother had already painted Maul in a dramatic pose weilding his double-bladed lightsaber. The job called for something 'new'..."
A detail of the second sketch. "I figured that Darth Maul on his Sith Speeder was the way to go. Everyone wanted to see more of it, so here was the chance. "You can see that while these roughs are basically glorified scribbles, it's enough to clearly get the idea across. Scribbling helps me to get the images out quickly while they are still fresh in my head.."
The completed second sketch. "I thought it would be cool to show a scene from Episode I that could have happened but we never got to see. So here we have Maul cruising the streets of a Tattooine settlement in search of the Jedi and the Queen. "I was also happy with this sketch, But knew that I could take it to a higher level of visual excitement."
A Detail of the third Sketch.
The completed third sketch.
The penciled drawing.
"Like most artists, I work from reference. However, I try not to just take an existing photo and just duplicate it. Everyone has allready seen all of the photos so there is no point in just rehashing the same images over and over. "So I use several things for reference and some things are just the imagination to create what I hoped would be a fresh, new, and exciting image. I went and picked up the Darth Maul / Sith Speeder bank to study the Sith Speeder, but refered to the EPISODE I VISUAL DICTIONARY for the bike's specific details. While I did use rare photo reference for Maul's face, I made up his body, robe, and field cloak out of my head. The landscape and sky were also created from scratch. "The drawing is pretty tight, because it's indicating exactly what the painting will be like. I fax the pencil drawing over for any last minute changes. The drawing is approved, and I can start painting!"
STEP 1 "The first thing I like to do is develop a contrast. I want to split everything up, the darkest darks and the lightest lights. The pencil sketch itself acts as a middle ground, and the open areas of the board show the lightest tones. So I start to paint with the darkest dark... BLACK! Acrylic Black- right out of the tube!"
STEP 2 "Now I begin with gray washes. For practical reasons, I paint almost everything in acrylics these days. The washes are painted in like watercolor. I'm just taking the acrylic paint and thinning it down with water. I paint in the gray tones so that it begins to look like a full value painting in black and white."
STEP 3 "I continue with the washes, but now with color. With the color washes, I'm not trying to render as much as I'm just separating specific shapes of color. You can still see the original drawing underneath the washes and that the painting is already pulling together."
STEP 4 "Now I pull out the airbrush. Many people see my work and assume that it's all airbrush- but it's far from the truth. Certain tricks work well with the airbrush, but I try to stay away from using it too much. Airbrush pieces can look dated and can be the kiss of death with many art directors. "In this piece I uses the airbrush to fill in the sky and the lighting effect for the Sith Speeder's headlights. The quickest step of them all, the airbrushing on this piece took less than ten minutes."
STEP 5 "Now I go back in and start painting again. Most of what I'm painting at this point are shiny highlights and lights in general. For example, I'm using colors opaquely for the lights on the Sith Infiltrator."
STEP 6 "Now I work in some grit. The piece in general needs texture to it, but I also wnated to show the crusty surface and some sand getting kicked up by the Sith Speeder's repulsorlifts. For the small bits of sand, I'll dip an old toothbrush in some paint and spritz it onto the surface of the board. To add contrast of sand particle sizes and to show some depth, I'll flick larger paint splatters with a brush."
STEP 7 "I have pretty much finished with the paint and it's now time to break out the color pencils to bring everything together. I mainly use the pencils to create action lines, giving the illusion that Darth Maul and the Sith Speeder are in motion. Because Darth Maul is gliding toward the viewer at an angle, I make sure that the lines go back correctly in perspective."
STEP 8 "I'm also using the color pencil for fine details all around the piece. Here you can see the face details in Maul's face touched up with the pencils. Depending on how much time I have, I may prefer to just paint everything, but the pencils can come in handy to pull stuff together quickly when needed."
STEP 9 "I sign it last. I think it's an unspoken tradition for artists and illustrators. I remember how cool it was to watch Bob Ross on TV crank out a wonderful painting in a half hour and then sign it at the end. To add to the dynamic perspective of the piece, I thought it would be cool to also sign my name in perspective, giving the illusion that my name is actually carved into the ground."
STEP 10 "Sleep on it! Many times upon finishing a piece I am off to get it to Fed Ex, but if I can help it, I always try to sleep on it. It's a Good idea to put it away for a bit and then come back to it fresh. Certain things may pop out at you that you didn't see when you were staring at it for hours before. "One of the ways I look at how I create my work is that I start off with one giant mistake. I just scribble something on to the board and start throwing paint on it. Then, my entire process is just fixing things. I fix things with brushes, and then I fix things with an airbrush. Then I fix the details with color pencils. Once I can't find anything else to fix, the painting is complete!" |
Matt
has been quietly working on this huge project
for a year now, and finally- it's unleashed!
He has collaborated with Digital Wave Creative
to develop a new App for the iPad: INTERACTIVE
SKETCHBOOK! The reason this took so
long to get out is because Matt and DWC really
wanted to make the best digital sketchbook on
the market- one that Matt would be proud to
put his name on. Ladies and gentleman- THIS
IS IT!
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