C.O.W. - #061: Iceberg Devourer - Official Tutorial by Tyranx

**Fozzybar** · September 25th, 2006, 06:49 AM

Tutorial for
COW #061 - Iceberg Devourer

artist:
Tyranx

**Tyranx** · September 25th, 2006, 06:49 AM

Hey guys, here's a mini tutorial on how I did the Iceberg Devourer. Lemme know what you think. its my first tutorial

The step by step:

A little insight into how I work:

And of course, the final:

**JakkaS** · September 25th, 2006, 07:01 AM

Thx Tyranx....now we all will be as quick and good as u are

**Tyranx** · September 25th, 2006, 07:04 AM

hehe

**Fozzybar** · September 25th, 2006, 07:33 AM

Thank you very much Tyranx...nice to see big guns are offering their help with tutorials like this...thank you to JakkaS and Tyranx...who can i thank for the next time?

btw..."pwned iceberg"...HAHA! Yeah!

**Piru** · September 25th, 2006, 07:35 AM

rofl idd!

Thx mate! some good hints 'n tricks in here!

**Eric Gerhard** · September 25th, 2006, 08:49 AM

Thanks Tyranx... This will help us through tough moment, heheh

Peace!

**Jabo** · September 25th, 2006, 08:59 AM

Uh, I think I just came...

Very nice. I like the description you made about detailling be erasing parts, this is an effect I wanted to achieve eversince but it was very hard to pick and change colors in such a subtle way (thinking of Sparth's pics). So in a way, the pressure sensivity of the eraser creates semi-transparent parts from the opaque top-layer? That's cool, but... I don't see a change between step 1 and 2. Is it my monitor?

**SprayNation** · September 25th, 2006, 11:19 AM

Thanks Tyranx! Especially love the penguins. For some reason, I keep imagining the penguins holding up scorecards rating how bad the iceburg got pwned. Great stuff! Peace

Eric

**Evil_Sloth** · September 25th, 2006, 11:27 AM

Wicked Man! I was wondering do you use any quick masks or something to achieve such clean shapes in your pieces? Or is it just painting and erasing on its own layer with the eraser tool.

**Chuck Wadey** · September 25th, 2006, 11:27 AM

Thanks for all of the extra work you had to do for this. I like the idea of doing side mini-tutorials in addition to the overall painting one.

Now give us a tutorial on painting the little white birds.

**VegasMike** · September 25th, 2006, 12:09 PM

I love the sense of scale, depth and overall epicness of your work. What layer styles/techniques do you use to add color to the gray scale? Thanks for the tutorial and inspiration for improving my skills...I shall use these techniques to hopefully win the COW...someday!

**romance** · September 25th, 2006, 02:20 PM

You young talented MOFO. Gonna try this technique out.

**Pesmerga** · September 25th, 2006, 02:47 PM

Nice tutorial.

I learned some interesting things and tactics. I already feel better at digital painting

**Icon** · September 25th, 2006, 03:07 PM

bravo!

**Cloister** · September 25th, 2006, 03:33 PM

Thanks man! It was interesting to see that the creature came along together with the environement and the composition. Most creature designers would probably come up with the creature first, and then think of a way of presenting them. The aims differ and so does the way of achieving them. I totally buy the way of giving birth to a powerful creature through a powerful and close to "abstract" composition. It was also soothing to see all the penguin combos you went through - that you had to move things around, and did not immidiatly find the best solution... the penguin looking away from the scene would have been a weird choice.

(I have to get better at keeping my layers in order. Too often I mess them up, and that saves no time at all.)
Thanks again!

Please post the final somewhat smaller next time. It's hard appreciating composition and balance when you have to scroll, and the power comes through well in any case.

**wizo5454** · September 25th, 2006, 03:55 PM

great tutorial. I learned that playing with saturation is a helpful tool to direct the viewer's eye in a better way... something I never thought of. Anyways
thanks tyranx I owe you one :o)

**Supervlieg** · September 25th, 2006, 04:14 PM

Lovely tutorial, and great to see you build up your image. Thanx for taking the trouble.

**Steve-O** · September 25th, 2006, 05:36 PM

Thanks for sharing this! Do you think you could go into a bit of detail on how you "lightened" the creature before the last step. I reall enjoy how that changes the entire focal point of the piece. And I'm not sure how this illusion is achieved in photoshop. Is it a layer combination? Are you painting in highlights? are you using the burn tool? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks again!

**Stephan_R** · September 25th, 2006, 05:55 PM

thank you Tyranx!! you're one of the artists on here that I've been dying to see reveal your process. You've shown too much, the magician's tricks are out!

haha jk

You're a master of "scale" and "detail" thank you so much, I will study this for a long time.

**cowboy surfer** · September 25th, 2006, 07:21 PM

Legendary. Thanks. Wonder how many of those techniques will be pulled out next round?

**wizo5454** · September 25th, 2006, 09:44 PM

hmmm, im gonna completely rip off his style.

jk
Well i might use his coloration techique (raise saturation)
cause my current techinique (one color layer as overlay) doesnt work well with pure white or pure black.

**CENOBITE** · September 26th, 2006, 04:18 AM

Gah! I keep forgetting to 'flip' the image... one of the best techniques to determine compositional balance.

**Chuck,mate.** · September 26th, 2006, 06:38 AM

cool.
you the man, Layne, and you know it.

thanks for sharing this with us, it`s much appreciated.

**vigostar** · September 26th, 2006, 01:04 PM

man that was awesome Tyranx! Thanks.. Actually it would be an awesome add if all the weekly winners did a step by step Tut. Just awesome

**Ostrander** · September 26th, 2006, 04:52 PM

Thank you for sharing the process with us Tyranx. Amazing work!

**Tyranx** · September 27th, 2006, 04:55 AM

Thanks Everybody, Glad to see that it helped yall.

Fozzybar - yup, it got proper pwned.

Durin/Piru -

Eric Gerhard - Glad to be of help.

Jabo - thanks, actually when I erase, I turn off pressure sensitivity, the painting I do in Step 2 is with the pressure on. yeah I'm a big fan of Sparth, he's the main reason I began trying to do environments in the first place.

SprayNation - haha, now every time I look at it, I think the same thing

Evil_Sloth - Just erasing.

Chuck Wadey - hehe np, I dont think your ready for my uber bird tutorial.

VegasMike - Thx, as far as adding color I just turn on preserve transparency and paint over it with the desired color with the brush set to color or soft light, and then I just continue to paint over it.

romance - cool, look forward to see what u come up with!

Pesmerga - great!

Iconophobian - ditto, love yer T-dome btw.

Cloister - Normally I would probably develop the creature first actually, but work keeps me pretty busy and I sometimes don't have the time, and I just want to draw something cool.

wizo5454 - thanks, yeah its one of the best ways of doin it.

Supervlieg - np

Steve-O - On the last step I made a new layer over the top of it all and set it to soft light I believe and I grabbed a very light blue, almost white and with a round soft brush went over it slightly. Then at the very end, after I had flattened the image I went over it ever so slightly with dodge.

Stephan_R - hehe thanks, I like drawing hugenormous monsters, especially sea monsters! ;P

cowboy surfer - Alot I hope, I'm interested to see what people do with it.

wizo5454 - yeah I've found that the lighter or darker your values, the less effective overlay becomes, so I use a combination of different layer options to achieve what I'm looking for. A quick combo might be, Vivid light, Soft light, difference, with vastly varying opacity settings, etc. (these would usally be on the top layers of my image)

CENOBITE - yup, its awesome

Chuck,mate. - np Chuck.

vigostar - yeah I'd like to see one from Chuck Wadey, that snail he made last time was oh so juicy.

Ostrander - thanks.

**llothcat** · September 27th, 2006, 04:58 AM

sweet

**Simon Boxer** · September 27th, 2006, 09:54 AM

Cool cool, Tyranx.

Now all we need is the 'how to make a fool-proof, crazy-good cinematic, super-dynamic, giant monsteriffic action composition' tutorial.

ps. urox