Love is a Battlefield

I have started a new long distance illustration course to push forward with assignments and projects that I wouldn't normally approach or challenge myself with. The first assignment is to create images based from a line or message within lyrics of songs. I started with a song they assigned as an example. "love is a battlefield" I liked the metaphor behind this song's lyrics and wanted to take the idea further. I started with rough thumbnails and classicly, a moodboard page to collect inspirational images and features I wanted to include within the image.

I explored textures, brushes and layers on photo shop to practice the techniques and style I wanted to go for. Mainly waited to aim for a gritty, rough, firey look.

Started working from my thumbnails and working out the poses of the male and female, to collect the basic composition and layout of the piece.

I then got into painting, mainly created a colour pallete to work with hot reds and oranges with cool blue greens in the shadowy foreground. I wanted it to be dark and somewhat abscure with a bright intense background of war and chaos.

Then finally the finished piece! I kept the characters cel-shaded to make them stand out against the rougher textured flooring and background.