The Skybreaker
Believe it or not, I created this bird beast with the prompt, Fourth of July. I set out to create a creature that comes off as mighty, robust, and powerful, just as the USA thinks it is. I had also been playing a lot of Horizon Forbidden West at the time and wanted to have those piercing glowing eyes I have come to fear to any flying machine from the game.
Unsplash
Procreate
TOOLS USED
The Process
1
I started off by gathering several eagle reference to begin my sketching. I also went and picked a color palette that I could use that did not stand out as βMERICA.
2
I keep building up the color, loosely placing it one the piece just to get a general idea of how I want my colors used. Once I got a good base I add in smaller strokes to give more definition. At this time i took in an image of the American flag I grabbed from unsplash. I blending it into what I painted so far.
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3
While painted in further detail I quickly realized rendering the feathers would take longer than I wanted. So I created a new brush from for this piece (but it has come in handy in other pieces) to help quickly lay down some βfeathers.β
Using my new brush i went in with various colors until I reached a my desired layering.
4
To finish off this piece I adding in some smaller birds for scale and painted in clouds on various layers before merging them onto one.
Overall I thought I did not spend a large amount of time on this but checking the stats, I spent almost two hours. Despite not meeting my goal in speed, creating this piece was a lot fun.