Steve introduces his workshop with an overview of his credentials and experience, followed by a short discussion of the workshop’s inspiration and references. Steve looks at some of the past illustrations and concepts he’s created for games, comics, and books to help artists better understand the workshop's end goal. He then poses several questions, including: What is the Story? Who are the characters? What are the characters doing? What is the mood of the scene we are creating? The lessons will continue to answer these important questions.

Duration: 11m 19s

Steve discusses format, simple perspective grids, and creating initial loose scribbles while concentrating on flow and composition. He talks through camera lenses, perspective distortion, and how to limit distortion in order to keep the scene and action clear and legible. He describes the importance of large, powerful visual flow lines, not just the traditional emphasis on shape and silhouette.

Duration: 28m 19s

In this lesson, Steve digs deep into the design of individual elements — characters, props, environment, architecture — and finalizes the full-size layout. This key stage focuses on line/drawing while showcasing important time-saving techniques, similar to 3D kitbashing, which can drastically reduce effort when drawing complex, organic architecture. Steve then shows how to prep the final layout for a color study.

Duration: 30m 31s

In this lesson, Steve teaches how to work out the value and palette for your artwork. He bypasses the traditional process of creating multiple black-and-white value studies and instead combines a color study with a value study for efficiency. This particular process assumes artists have an intermediate level of experience in foundational art and already understand how value and color work together. Using the reference and past concept work of the artist to decide quickly on a direction for the palette and lighting.

Duration: 25m 33s

In this lesson, Steve shows how to duplicate and optimize the working file to prevent wasted time jumping around layers, layer groups, layer FX, and so on. He then details how to paint the background and discusses the use and limitations of photo textures. Steve goes on to introduce extreme levels of detail with the intent of controlling clarity and confusion through atmosphere and contrast. At this stage, he is sharing how to throw massive amounts of visual information at the image, with the understanding that he will edit all of it as the lessons proceed.

Duration: 29m 37s

This lesson concentrates primarily on the characters. Steve introduces the Blend brush and replaces the colored line layout with a full rendering. He demonstrates how to remove the line and use it as a foundation and guide for the render. He discusses the importance of a simple blend brush and how to set it up in a 2D application, such as Photoshop. His preferred brush settings allow for very fine control of edge and form.

Duration: 19m 44s

In this penultimate lesson, Steve shows how to double and triple the size of individual characters and execute extremely tight renders. He explains the advantage of working on individual elements at twice the resolution of the main working file and discusses the critical importance of creating detail only in the silhouette. He shows how limited photo textures can be used to increase clarity and material description.

Duration: 32m 55s

In this final lesson, Steve reintroduces the 2x and 3x character renders back into the working file, demonstrating how to clean up, integrate, and tune the final image. He shows how to add final VFX and post-FX, and how to add the final top-level patch layer. Steve discusses the advantages and importance of controlling soft and hard edges by hand rather than relying on filters. He concludes by discussing the importance of not stopping, even when it feels like the image is done.

Duration: 33m 20s