Want to thank my man Marcus for working on this the first cover for the Whiplash Mini series.
Cut and paste from here: https://therealalpha2.deviantart.com/art/Whiplash-Commi... A while back I was asked by :iconjasoncanty: to do a pic of his character Whiplash, only he wanted it to have the same pose as The cover to my comic Happiness Is A Warm Gun: One Shot. So I took the opportunity to try and keep a log of progress from the original cover to the final image based on it. This is just a rough description of the process. I can't reveal everything otherwise people would start doing what I do better than me! (not that there aren't plenty already of course.)
Step 1: Was to Light box the original pose as a guideline to draw the new character.
Step2 : After that I went looking for reference. Whiplash had several styles and images so I took the most general concepts and interpreted them in my own style. I haven't drawn many anthropomorphic or half human/half animal (or even animal!) characters in my time so I wasnt sure how it would turn out but I think I got the character down generally well.
Step 3: After cleaning up and detailing the character I selected and removed the white and placed the line work over a separate layer with a white background and added a layer for color. Using the reference, I grabbed some of the more consistent colors featured. The white fur started in grey not only to provide a flat color selectable area, but also worked as a shadow base.
Step 4: OOPS forgot to draw the tail! (told you I dont draw animal characters often), A couple of quick steps in Photoshop later and it's all fixed. A few more flat color details and I could start embellishing the character with shadows and highlights. Two layers separate from each other to reduce the chance of messing up one while doing the other. Picked the gun barrel as the source of light and adjusted the shadows first based on this.
Step 5: Highlights and shadows completed. I turned to a few new layers for things like reflections or light glare that would stand out or pop from the image and special effects like the muzzle flashes. Then I added a gradient background and textured it with a few effects and a layer for the bullet holes behind her.
