Glow Effects: Lava

In this task we practised painting lava digitally as a way of practising glowing entities (such as light trails as seen in sci-fi) by first drawing a yellow shape, then applying orange and red shades over the top of it. We were also taught some things about layers in Photoshop, such as locking transparent pixels and opacity. This is what I made as a result:

 

We were then taught about layer styles, these are effects that are automatically put onto a layer and can be adjusted. Using a layer style given to us, we went on to take the image below and paint over it to make it into a lava monster. We also cropped it and adjusted the lighting to make it appear more rock like.

Finally, we were given a task to do in our own time, design 3 lava-rock monsters in our sketchbooks and finish our favourite one in Photoshop. The first thing I did was research lava monsters already made:

(http://jedcartwright.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/lava-monster.html) (24/10/15)

I find that the way the creature is blob-like is very interesting.

 (http://gamerant.com/borderlands-pre-sequel-trailer-screenshots/) (24/10/15)

Perhaps having a canine shaped creature would look good. 

 (http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Lava_monster_%28Elder_Kiln%29) (24/10/2015)

Although from an old game, the jaggedness could prove as a design feature.

 

(http://samuraijack.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lava_Monster) (24/10/15)

Despite being highly stylised and from a cartoon, I like how symmetrical they attempt to be.

After research I then produced 3 sketches:

The first (Top-Left) was created by making something that utilised the shape of an animal, and from there I built around this concept and made the monster have an open ribcage spewing lava, inspired by the gooey monster I researched. This is my faourite design.

The second (Top-Right) one is inspired by the last researched image. For this design I tried to do something more anthropomorphic, however I feel the design is boring and doesn't look like a lava monster.

Lastly the (Bottom-Left) one. While thinking back to my animal based design, I thought it would be cool to make a rideable lava bird. Unfortunately the design of it doesn't seem to be interesting or unique enough to be my final design, despite the good concept.

Of course, this means that my final design is the first one, which I took into photoshop and coloured:

I made this with help of the layer styles, and the glowy lineart was actually a happy mistake. I figured it made the creature look hotter and so I kept it. I'm pleased with how this came out however the use of styles does mean that it is difficult to give the lava any texture, so perhaps next time I could try another method of making the glow work.