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- [Voiceover] What's up guys.
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Welcome to TheArtClasses.com.
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Today we are going to talk about
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how I use a reference.
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And the proper way to utilize the reference
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that we use in the illustration.
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There are a big difference between
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using, copying from a photo and using a reference.
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So a lot of time I'll get a question on the video,
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did you use a reference?
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But usually what it does mean is like
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did you copy from a photo somewhere.
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And reference use it's very important
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in making a concept art or illustration.
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And there are many ways to use reference
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in your concept art and illustration.
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When you look at something or analyze something.
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So I will show you how I use a reference today,
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just on a few of my, on a couple
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of my illustration and concept art.
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Alright, let's get started.
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So here is a close up version
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of the illustration of a book cover that I did
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for some publication in Australia.
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And in this one, I used a lot of reference
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to get to, I'll show you the full one here.
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So we're just going to close this one now.
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And that is the full cover.
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Basically.
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And if you zoom in you see the size
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of the book cover is probably going to be that,
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about that big.
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But, I usually paint about 2-3 times bigger.
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And if you zoom in you see a bunch of
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brush stroke, like here you see all this craziness in here.
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Pretty chaotic, but you zoom out,
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it will look clean and okay.
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So first, I'm going to show you this one,
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and how I get to this point.
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So basically, you see a lot of my speed painting.
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This is basically one of them.
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And most of my speed paintings
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are basically comps.
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Where is it?
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So I start off with here.
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And it usually not that big,
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so probably about that big.
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So this is where I begin,
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and the reference I use for these is
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tons of
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that one is basically the reference for lighting.
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So there are many way to use the reference.
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Like you could find one photo and
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have using lighting as a reference,
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so you notice even though it doesn't
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look anything like this one,
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but you notice the lighting,
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they are basically the same.
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So once I establish the lighting from there,
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then I can thought of how I'm gonna compose my scene,
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what do I put in there.
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In the beginning I didn't think of it as much,
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but then I was like ah maybe I should make them a
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mech, commando, and then I was like
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maybe I should keep them a group.
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So a lot of time I will use lighting from other reference.
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But usually, it depends on ya know how sometimes
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I do the lighting style, sometimes I use the
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reference for something else.
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Sometime I just come up with the comps on something.
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Here I add a few solider behind it,
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really rough.
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And I wanna see how the comp station turn out.
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If it turn out that I
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enjoy the comp scene and
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the comp scene can be taken further
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then I would go in and add a bunch
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more detail in it.
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But before you go in and add more detail,
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you want to sketch out,
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like okay what kind of detail you want for the arms,
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or is it going to be mech,
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or are they carrying a gun.
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So I changed it totally to have him
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being a sort of mech man as you can see,
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like a bunch of armor
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more of a futuristic, and then you see a tank
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become a tank, and then...
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You have to have a good understanding of light and shadow
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to make this happen.
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Because if you look at this here,
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only this part, or you see the cut out
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between light and shadow,
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that is already going into the shadow zone
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and when you pin an object into the shadow zone,
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you have to consider the lighting,
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okay the lighting coming from the
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basically the sun come from the back.
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So this guy gonna get a little bit more light,
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and all the rest of this guy will just get
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a touch of light because they are in the shadow zone.
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And also with the face, I also using the reference
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by looking at a bunch of hyenas,
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even though it, I just kinda look at the mouth
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and how it's gonna go.
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And I give him a scar face.
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If you Google hyena's your gonna see
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tons of hyena's.
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On the generic term I usually use Google, right.
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So you can have wider range of option
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because robot will gather this image for you.
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And then I will do research on Pinterest
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for some mech design.
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So you can just take a look at some mech design
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on Pinterest, which one would fit your type of mech,
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because they're so many, there are like Steampunk,
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futuristic, you want it to be a more rounded shape,
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or you want it to be more angular.
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Or you want it to be more Japanime.
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It's entirely up to your direction
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of how your gonna design it.
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So once you gather a bunch of reference
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you can put them into a,
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where is it,
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reference folder, so in here there's a...
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I couldn't find a reference folder to use for this
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but here is kinda something similar.
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It's one of my student make them for his project.
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Also you have to look at the real reference of,
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like okay how is the wire how the gun would look
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and all this part of the tank you can use,
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all part of mixed with realism and
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the concept, and the futuristic stuff
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and you can apply into here,
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like how and you have to also consider
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if you're making creatures,
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then you have to understand how
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their body and anatomy work.
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I don't want to just make a humanoid
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and give him a human anatomy.
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I want to make him maybe give it a hybrid look
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so he will still kind of walking on his tippy toe
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with a little hunch, like a gorilla kind of thing.
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But he will still have to rely on his forefoot.
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And walk around backward and be able to still
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to carry stuff and I would imagine like how they
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would like live, and sort of evolve
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into a little bit more human-like with
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like how when they walk.
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So you kinda have to mix it with hybrid.
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So that is the first one that's how I use the reference.
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So there is a different between gathering a good
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reference to use for your illustration and
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just merely copy a photo and paint it.
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I think a lot of time people misunderstand
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reference, especially the beginners.
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It's a good practice to sometimes if you want
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to paint a photo just to practice your lighting
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and your accuracy, then that's fine.
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That's not all when you're gonna use a reference
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that's not mere copy.
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So in this illustration I use quite a bit of reference,
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because I have to design the suit,
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I have to maybe look at how to curly hair
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actually work and as you see here,
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there's a lot of brush stroke that's going in
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to try to mimic the hair.
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It's just a matter of preference.
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Some people when they make illustration,
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they like to clean line and clean stroke,
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but I do love the texture of the brush,
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and it's helped me achieving really some
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a little bit easier when you have alternate
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between different texture brush.
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And here you can see there's a bunch of
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element involved, like the gun I have to design
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and under a certain angle,
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and hands I have to look at reference,
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which hands are easy,
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you can just look at your hand
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and angle it differently.
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Or you can look at some photo you can find.
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The holster, and the way the holster attach to the body.
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So I'm just gonna explain bit by bit.
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First, one thing before you start illustration
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you have to come up with your own composition first.
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How is this whole thing gonna look,
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and then you know you can select one
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from many of your comps.
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So this is where I start off with.
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Which each one for me is about
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maybe 10-20 minutes.
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Depends on how much you want to put in
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and how many element you are in there.
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But usually when I make a comp
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I'll think about foreground, which is here
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her and the wall.
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Midground which is a bunch of solider here
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and this wall, building collapsing here.
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And background, which is there.
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And then in here is foreground
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would be him and her and then
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midground would be this block of the building here,
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and the background would be like two solider.
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Same as here.
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Foreground, midground, background.
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So think of it simple.
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And the reference that I use,
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this are just part of it right.
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So you have to look, or searching for,
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like the hair for instance.
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I have to know what curly hair look like.
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And how do I want the curl to look.
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And so I look at the different curly hair
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and then I just kind of try to mimic
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the shape of the hair,
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and how the texture of it,
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and apply it to my illustration right here.
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So there is one, and then
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when the face is angled up,
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so I have used this tool for the reference
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of how am I going to angle up the face.
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But you can flip it so you have
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if you flip it you can see a bit more
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that it look pretty similar to these two.
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So right.
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And I'm going to flip it back now.
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And then, the design
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I kind of look at some reference
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from here, to kind of get the idea
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or the direction you could go.
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Not necessarily like taking it from there,
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because every time you see some good design,
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you kinda like oh that's cool,
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and then I also add a bunch of character
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reference here, either from the real life costume,
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or the concept design.
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And trying to apply whatever element
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like ya know, you see a bunch of really cool
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design stuff like straps, how he put the holster on
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and what is the armor I'm making and all these.
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But these are a little more bulkier version.
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But I want my character to sort of be
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a little more streamlined,
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but with a bit more armor than these two.
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And then all the goons here
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are basically more of the bulky design that I have.
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And you see the holster basically
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I kind of take it, you have to look at
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the real reference of the holster,
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like how they actually look,right?
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So you can properly add them to there
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and how you get the holster onto the belt
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or the chest, or the legs.
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Many different version,
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so you have like that strap,
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these straps, and maybe some other thing
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like this shotgun ammo.
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Which she doesn't have any shotgun there,