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Ranefea

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Fan Art Week


Hello DeviantArt! I’m long-time member Ranefea, or Ran, and lately I’ve become known for my stained glass style artworks, especially my The Legend of Zelda oriented fanart pieces.

For those unfamiliar, The Legend of Zelda is a long running action-adventure RPG video game series by Nintendo. Throughout its 30+ year run, this game series has seen many different visual styles, from anime, to cartoon, to cute-simplicity. The mid-2000’s brought us The Wind Waker, a Game Cube-era game that introduced what’s now known as the “toon” style for the series. This game and style also brought us some amazing stained glass style official artwork.

A few years ago, I began experimenting with drawing in this toon style, working to perfectly mimic the art from the games as an exercise. What started with a few fun pieces evolved into a full series of artwork where I took the non-toon style games and drew them in this stained glass toon style.

The following tutorial will walk you through my process in creating these works mostly using my Link’s Awakening artwork.

Tools


My main tool for creating these pieces is Adobe Photoshop. While I’m mostly a traditional artist these days, my stained glass pieces are some of the few done start to finish completely digitally. Photoshop is usually my digital tool of choice and I’ve been using it for over 15 years. While I’ve tried other software, Photoshop offers the best tools for creating these pieces specifically. But don’t let this stop you from trying these methods in other software!

Step 1. Visualization and Research


The first step is to visualize what I want to do with the piece at hand. In this case, we’re looking at the game Link’s Awakening. I’ll look at existing artwork in the toon style I’m working in as well as artwork from the game itself. This helps me re-immerse myself into the game and consider poses and other elements.

I also consider the visual elements from this game. What were the main themes, characters, landmarks, etc.? What can I incorporate into this piece that will be unmistakably recognized as being from this game?

For this piece, I chose the elements of the Wind Fish’s egg, sitting high on the mountain, and common elements from the series as a whole: the rupee and the heart. For other pieces, it may be characters unique to that game, such as Hilda in A Link Between Worlds, in which case I mirrored her and Zelda, as they are counterparts to each other.

Step 2. Sketching


When creating a stained glass piece, one of the first things I do is create the “frame” for the piece. For these Zelda pieces, I reuse the same frame to keep a common element throughout the whole series.

 Frame1 by Ranefea
Frame2 by Ranefea
Frame3 by Ranefea

The next thing I do is sketch out Link, who will always be the main focus of each piece and will always be positioned horizontally center as he is in the official artwork. I work out a pose appropriate to the game and mimic The Wind Waker's style, while carefully considering the other stylistic elements from this game’s version of link such as his hair style, tunic, boots, etc. working to retain these features.

Sketch1 by Ranefea 

Next up are the main background elements. I don’t actually sketch out every tiny detail in most cases, just the main pieces as I’m mostly working on composition. The Wind Fish’s egg is a great element—the egg shape is symmetrical and works well positioned behind Link’s head like a contrasting halo which is so common in historical stained glass. While the mountain it sits on doesn’t actually float in the game, this is where we can take some artistic liberties.

Since Link’s Awakening takes place on an island, and starts out and ends with Link in the ocean, water is another element important to add.

Sketch2 by Ranefea 


Step 3. Line art


Once the rough sketch is completed I begin working on the line art. The line art for a piece like this would be the equivalent to what is called “came” in stained glass—the metal structures binding the pieces of glass together.

I start with Link, using thick black lines, however it’s important to vary line weights. Main lines will be thicker, detail lines will be thinner. Intersecting lines are rounded out in the corners to mimic the merging came.

Lineart1 by Ranefea 

On a new layer, I create a thicker outside border. This is important as it helps prevent Link from blending into the background too much.

The background line art is completed on a separate layer. I draw out the main elements first. But then what do we do with all this blank space still left? Honestly, this is where I play around with shapes and lines until something comes together that I like! Feel free to experiment and play! Once I have something I like, I follow the same as I did above with line weights and such.

Lineart2 by Ranefea 

Step 4. Colors


The colors for Link are easy enough—matching his colors to his in-game colors.

Color1 by Ranefea 

The background colors are a little trickier. Outside of specific elements that have set colors, here I think about what colors this game makes me think of, or what colors are heavily present in the game itself. I'll then fill the whole background with the main color, usually a gradient between hues. I select various sections and use the hue/saturation/lightness sliders to alter the color, further making each piece like an individual fragment of stained glass.

Color2 by Ranefea Color3 by Ranefea 

Step 5. Textures and Blending Modes


A lot of stained glass isn’t one smooth color—it has a bit of a texture to it. Here I select many different sections and then copy the color to a new layer. I use various filters (noises, blurs) to create a texture, then change the blending mode on that layer. Which blending mode used will depend on the colors selected as the blending reacts differently with different values and hues. The desired result is a bright, vibrant look. Continue doing this until all pieces have been textured. In Photoshop, you can create actions—where you record a few steps that you plan on using over and over—to help speed up the process. Make sure you don’t select pieces next to each other as when you blur the textures, the colors can spill into each other (but sometimes this creates a nice effect).

Texture1 by Ranefea Texture2 by Ranefea Texture3 by Ranefea 

Step 6. Final Detailing


Back to Link. Here I select different sections and use a lighter color to create a highlight. Just scribbling on the color in the center and adding a Gaussian blur and setting the highlight layer to “overlay” gives a bright effect like light shining through.

Highlight1 by Ranefea Highlight2 by Ranefea 

I also duplicate the line art several times and add various blurs and blending modes (again the blending mode can vary depending on the colors used). This softens the line art a bit and can give a bit of a shaded look where the light might not be shining through as much at the edge of the came.

Here is the completed piece!
Link's Awakening Stained Glass by Ranefea

And that's about it! Feel free to add whatever other elements or detailing you want for your own piece—not every one will require the same thing and it's always a great learning experience to play around with effects.

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Youmacon 2016

3 min read
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Youmacon

Anyone going to Youmacon? I'll be there again this year. My table is C17 facing the dealers, the same spot as last year, and also next to kojika as usual. 

I'll have posters (including holographic coated!), prints, etched glasses and mirrors, penicl bags, and clear stickers.

Youma2016 by Ranefea




Facebook, Tumblr, etc...

As always, I don't usually update my status here on dA (and I'm not too sure I'll be using their new Status Update feature much). So to get more frequent updates and to see sketches and WiPs, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr and/or Instagram



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Youmacon 2015

2 min read
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Youmacon is this weekend! Who will I see there? It's been a few years since I've been able to attend. 

Come see me in the Artist Alley! I'll be at table C17, facing the Dealer's Hall with sakuraWhisper and kojika
 Youma Layout Upload by Ranefea



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Ramencon 2015

2 min read
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ACen is next weekend, May 15–17. Come see me in the Artist Alley! I'll be at F08 (Row F, Table 08). 

See map here

:bulletorange: sakuraWhisper will be my studiomate, selling jewelry
:bulletred: kojika will be next to us at F09
:bulletpurple: rajamitsu will be at F10
:bulletblue: Karmada will be at F11
:bulletpink: IcyPanther1 will be at B32


Who else will be there? I'll be premiering 11x17in posters for the the first time:
Skyward Sword as Wind Waker by Ranefea    Yuna by Ranefea  Art Deco Sailor Moon by Ranefea  Art Deco Sailor Neptune by Ranefea  Rin by Ranefea  Saber Casual by Ranefea  Saber by Ranefea


And I'll have prints of many 8.5x11 artworks from the past year as well:
And Now You Will Feel My Wrath! by Ranefea    Jupiter Star Power, Make Up! by Ranefea  Sailor Neptune Redesign (Contest Entry) by Ranefea  Black Lace by Ranefea 


I'll also have all 3 varieties of Hyrule Warriors scarves
Hyrule Warriors: Link's Scarf by Ranefea  Hyrule Warriors Scarf: Dark Link version 2 by Ranefea  Hyrule Warriors Scarf: Dark Link version 1 by Ranefea


I'll have these awesome clear stickers of the Cosmic Sailor Senshi designs, too!
Cosmic Senshi Version 2 by Ranefea  Cosmic Senshi Version 1 by Ranefea
(The black areas on these will be clear)


I'll also have a few etched mirrors, although stock of those may be low. My normal supplier does not have the base mirrors anymore and I still have not received my shipment of the ones I ordered online weeks ago.


I'll have lots of etched glasses, including some new designs which I haven't uploaded here yet. 
Legend of Zelda Etched Glass by Ranefea  Heart Container Etched Glass Design by Ranefea  Sailor Moon Etched Glass Design by Ranefea  Moogle Etched Glass Design by Ranefea  Chocobo Etched Glass Design by Ranefea

There will also be several new Fate/Stay Night (Rin, Gilgamesh, Caster, Caster's Assassin, Rider), Sword Art Online (Asuna, Kirito, Leafa), Arata Kangatari (Kugura), and The Legend of Zelda (Saria, Nabooru) chibis that I'll be sharing here over the next week or two. 

I'll also have my hearthstone and ocarina charms. I'll also have the fairy bottles, but I haven't been able to obtain the correct bottles lately, so they're running very low. Get one while you can!

As always, I'll be offering on-site commissions in pencil, ink, and Copic markers. If you'll be there and want one, please stop by! 



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Featured

Stained Glass Style Tutorial - The Legend of Zelda by Ranefea, journal

Youmacon 2016 by Ranefea, journal

Youmacon 2015 by Ranefea, journal

Ramencon 2015 by Ranefea, journal

Anime Central 2015! by Ranefea, journal