Capturing Light In A Portrait

As he paints an ethereal portrait piece, Simon goinard reveals his techniques for using light to capture volume and shapes effectively

- Simon Goinard

This workshop will reveal how I design most of the lighting in my character designs. Then I’ll explain my approach to balancing shapes and introducing an impressionistic mood with two basic Photoshop brushes.

I’ll also cover the idea often depicted by Hans Holbein: that adding or changing a tiny detail in a portrait can make a significant difference to the mood in the piece. Finally, I’ll attempt to demonstrate the simultaneous contrast effect. This is when two colours that are placed alongside each other appear differently, depending on which colours are used and what they’re adjacent to. By the end of this workshop you’ll be aware of what to look out for during the different stages of the painting process when designing an original character.

Finally, bear in mind that this workshop is based my commission to paint this issue’s cover art. This means that I’ve had to adapt the sketch and colours palette to the specific art direction and feedback given by the ImagineFX team. However, this doesn’t change anything regarding my regular approach to my work, which is the main thing that I want to try to explain across the next few pages!

1 Take the correct approach when sketching a portrait

I always start the sketching process of a character with a vertical composition. It’s a basic rule that people tend to forget. Don’t work from a horizontal or a random frame for a portrait composition. It has to look like a portrait. Each limb of the human body is longer than it is wider, and so the composition will always look better when you take a vertical approach to the assignment.