The Life of a Panda Leopard

Can you imagine a male giant panda getting frisky snow leopard? Its hard enough to get them to breed with their own kind, never mind the literal impossibility of anything being conceived. None the less that is the background of Patrick O'Brian's book, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard, first published in 1930 when O'Brian was only 15 years old. Here you can read the first few pages online on Amazon.com .

Anyway, I must say I'm slightly fond with this book and its defiantly has a re-reading value (the fact it only has 101 pages probably helps too). And the character, the impossible Panda-Leopard hybrid interested me. Would he look more like a Panda or a Snow Leopard? Would he look like a Leopard with Panda markings?
So I've decided to do a book cover, it'd be good practice. Below are the two existing covers I have found. I must admit I prefer my Harper Collins publication with Arthur Wardle's "The Resting Leopard" on the cover, though at least the other was drawn for the purpose of the book rather than lifted from somewhere else (for one it ain't even a snow leopard). There are also a few illustrations in the book by Jane Conway, yet they show something that again looks very normal, in leopard terms.

It'll get me used to having to plan a piece with measurements of a book cover and have to think about things like text placement.

First off I'm going to re-read the book for ideas, like I said its only 101 pages so it won't take me long. Meanwhile I'll do some research.

Rodan

Another quick thing, like the line-art before. This time I was looking through my DeviantArt Favourites for inspiration and found a Godzilla piece done by Byo Tenkai ( here for DeviantArt account and Main Website ). She used scratch board which gave amazing texture. I wanted to see if I could get a scratchy feel with digital.

I know some Godzilla and Toho fans are going to "rip me a new one" for making Rodan more bird than Pterosaurs but I was thinking logically. If he fights against Godzilla and those other giant monsters than being a Pterosaurs would be a disadvantage. Membrane is very susceptible to damage (ie, a claw would have no problem tearing through it) and Pterosaurs probably had to mainly rely on air currents to take off. Not a good thing if you need to take off in a hurry, ie, a giant radioactive reptile giving you the evil eye.
So, my Rodan is more of a giant bird, though I've kept his horns.

I haven't seen any of Rodan's movies, I do want to though. Now I have a Multi-Region DVD player I have no excuse not to.

Tusks

Just a quick thing, playing around with the line tool on Photoshop, which I have finally learnt to use. I think Predator comics I was reading rubbed off on this design for a False Vampire ( Vampyrum ).
Got a damn signature sorted out too.

Damug and Cluny

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< Damug and Cluny
hmmmm. I must admit it looks better smaller than zoomed in on Photoshop. I don't like the clouds in the background, they are a bit distracting, but I don't have to heart to go back and spend ages changing it when I'm craving to move on.

I realised what I was finding 'off' about the grass, there was too much detail in too much space. When I cropped it it looked better. I made some Dandelion Fluff Brushes to do then foreground.

Damug and Cluny: Part 5 ( The Little Bits )

It took me a moment to think on how to render the characters, should I use soft light or cell-style shading? In the end it seemed better to use a soft light, keeping with the setting. Damug's eyes also gave me some grief as I wasn't sure how to make them not appear flat and lifeless. They still do, now that I look at them, so they'll be improved. I'm not sure on the cold lighting on Cluny's dark fur, it looks off. So, I'll probably change it to a honey colour like in his crest's highlights (which have an almost erotic sway over me. haha!) It'll oppose him to Damug, but it might turn out better, we'll see.

Cluny's cape, seeing as it is made out of bat wings, needed a bit of reference. The colour was changed and I added veins that are evident in the membrane. I will later add some evidence of stitching because I doubt one continuous sheet of membrane would be possible, seeing as the bones would have to have been cut out.

The grass, Oh Boy! I'm not used to doing grass, at least cartoonish grass. Its hard to decided between hinted blades of grass or lots of individual blades. Well, I did one line of blades with a custom brush I made then duplicated and modified till the bottom of the screen was reached. Then it was far to colourful and distracting so I had to tone it down to the image above. Still not sure about it, I see how it looks with the grass in the foreground.

Damug and Cluny: Part 4 ( Basic Colour)

That green was too sickly. So the Curves tool was used to lower the brightness of the green without effecting the blue. Its now a lot easier on the eye.


These are the basic colours of the two figures. Damug is from a tribe that trow a two sided sword, one with a straight edge to represent land and the other is wavy to represent the sea, to decide what path the army would follow. So his palette became a cold blue/sea greens with a earthy heavy leather coat. Cluny on the other hand is quite an exotic creature from a far away land, but with dark fur. I got into my mind of chocolate, and how exotic that would be in the drab medieval world, so his colour palette had the rich browns. Also he is found of using animal parts in his clothing (ie, a cloak made from Bat Wings, Skulls ect) so again I used neutral browns/leather colours for his clothing.


The sky is bugging me at the moment. I'm still undecided if I want a high contrast or something more pale. The paleness would blend well with the clouds and contrast with the two characters.

Damug and Cluny: Part 3 ( Masks Prep )

It looks like a colourful mess, something a 2 year old would vomit if it ate the entire packet of crayons, but there is method to this madness.
I have created two solid blocks of colour for the background and on separate layers I filled in the two figures with one colour. This is so that I can use the Mask tools to quickly select one element of this painting, for example if I wanted to adjust only Cluny I can do so without effecting anyone else.
I then do more precise colour blocks for individual parts of their bodies that I might need to deal with separately, like the clothes and skin. None of these colours will appear in the final thing, it is mainly for quick mask selects, and will be hidden most of the time.

I've never tried to paint something like this so I'm not sure how it will all turn out...