I must have drawn deleted and redrawn the water in this panel like 8 times. Water has always been hard for me especially when it’s dark water, I get so tripped up by where to put the black shadows and how to do the reflections while also suggesting the surface texture of the water. ARGH. I hate it.
Here’s the latest attempt. I feel like it looks too much like lava??
Maybe I should just leave all the black shadows out of it. BLAH.
Here’s the full layout, below. I feel like the water in the first panel works okay in this sketch but I go off the rails as soon as I tighten up the linework and put detail in it.
This page contains a rare glimpse of the Sketchup models I sometimes use, usually for cars and sometimes guns. I never directly use the 3D Sketchup models, I only use them for the perspective and then trace over them and embellish them so the objects look like the same as everything else.
It’s really handy, you can rotate the 3D models around to any angle you want. Sometimes I even build my own from scratch, which is really time-consuming but worth it in the end. Here’s the vehicle I used for the police cars in this scene, but the final art will be like a futuristic dystopia vehicle.
Anyway, FUCK WATER
First of all, still loving seeing the process!
Second, I agree with you, the first image is still feeling more like lava or rock(s) than water. As is right now, I think the second one (no details/shading) reads more as water than the first.
Process pages are amazing as usual. I agree with Kelly that simpler is better. I also like the shapes you did in the initial layout with the shadows of the pillars on the water. Maybe just make those shapes black/dark and leave the rest whatever color you make the water? Keep up the awesome work!