The Making of Dana
My name is Lidija. I’m a 2D artist based in Germany and working in a small game development studio. Mostly I work in 2D, but I as well enjoy improving my skill in 3D. Here is the making of Dana.
Concept
Because of my background, I chose Serbia as the country for my champion. I combined features I knew from my origin with attributes I researched. I imagined her living high up in the mountains of the Balkanise terrain in a small village whose inhabitants were mostly shepherds. Some of the villagers are blessed with the spirit of the Balkan and were able to use certain kinds of powers. Dana is one of them. She has the power to summon the wind.
I always start with the background of a character and what the character should be like, then I do a lot of research. It's a great way to learn more as well as to get some inspiration from. In Serbia, the features of traditional clothing are different depending on which region you live in. So I combined the clothes and jewelry and started my first drafts.
After the first sketches of Dana are done, I looked at the designs and decided on how the clothing should look according to the following criteria: religiosity, liveliness, and simplicity.
Living high up on the mountain in a small village, I imagine Dana more of a simple and faithful person.
I have narrowed down my selection to two designs.
In the next step, I combined the two concepts and implemented the colors of the Serbian national flag on her clothes. I tried to let the Serbian culture speak through the clothing the best I could, so bright colors and jewelry were the main focus.
Illustration
After rendering the designs, I started with the first thumbnails for my illustration.
This is also the most fun and insightful part for me. I wanted to show her power and her culture in her movements too, which I associated with dance. In the end, I decided on number 11, here all criteria were met.
I noticed that the rotation of her lower body was off, so I sketched some other poses and decided to go with the last one.
Since I struggled with the colors during the further process the most, I first created the illustration in black and white and then applied the colors.
Finally, I was satisfied with the composition of the picture, but the colors appeared to be too bright with intrusive shades of blue.
I took a lot of the blue away and added some warm colors. From here on it was a lot of detailed work. I fixed the values and corrected imperfections. I changed a few things, especially on her face, added some details, or took them away. In the end, I decided to put Dana and her colorful clothes in the foreground and tone down the background and her magic.
The way from the first idea and research to the end result is a path with many obstacles. Even if you have an exact idea of the artwork at the beginning, that idea does not have to be carried through to the end.
For me the beginning is a strong thought process, which then morphs more into a feeling. I changed a lot of things because I found them more coherent and more aesthetic, for this reason.
I hope I was able to give you an insight into my work process and I hope it can be used for inspiration for fellow artists.
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