How To Draw Frozen Ice Monster

Realistically paint a character frozen in ice

Ice is mainly translucent, so you should exist able to see the character inside – unless the ice is covered with snowfall, frost or something else. Low-cal passing through ice is refracted in one way or another, and then the thicker and more irregular the water ice is, the more distorted the things inside volition appear. Furthermore, although light tin pass through ice, it'southward non totally transparent, so lights and shadows will be bandage over it, just like any other solid object.

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Notice some pictures of ice and objects frozen in ice, and observe how the refraction normally distorts how we run across the objects inside, mutual shapes of ice, how the light passes through it, and how it shines when it's clean. Once you're familiar with the fabric, you can start painting.

I would propose painting the full figure (y'all don't need to put too much details on the parts that will be inside the ice) and then, using unlike layers, brainstorm painting the ice encasing your creature.

01. Distortion

First I paint the character, then I paint the water ice over information technology on a low-value Opacity layer. Then, using the Smudge tool, I misconstrue the figure, trying to mimic the mode in which water ice usually distorts the way we see objects that are inside it. I endeavor to do this according to the shape of the block of ice that I'm painting. It'south essentially a matter of ascertainment.

02. Low-cal and shadow

After that, using a combination of Screen, Multiply and Overlay layers, I kickoff to paint the lights and shadows of the ice. For this example I use some textured brushes to achieve a thick-ice texture. I paint the highlights on the surface of the ice, attempting to follow the shapes that I call back my block of ice should have, using a fleck of intuition.

03. Reflections

When the ice layer starts to actually look like ice, I apply normal layers to pigment additional reflections of light, trying to add more information about the shape of the block of ice on the areas that look a bit empty. I also start to paint details in order to solve small-scale imperfections in the epitome. And with that I'm able stop the core of the water ice structure.

Words: Paco Rico Torres

Paco Rico Torres is a freelance illustrator living in Spain who'southward produced art for several carte games, magazines, books and role-playing games. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX mag event 106.