So, I’m finally done with this illustration for my “Return to Shamballa” Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction on fanfiction.net. The story’s basically about Ed and Al returning to their world (their little Shamballa, although I’d say it’ll turn out to be anything but), Ed becoming reinstated, and eventually finds out what he gave in exchange for returning to his own world. Ed should look older in this illustration, since he’s 23, now, by the way, and he’s having a mock battle with someone out of view as his practical skills test. Here’s a link to the story, and this scene is from the beginning of chapter 5. [link]
I did clip the picture quite a bit... Thought I’d make it look more like a screenshot. I kind’a impressed myself with how I figured out a way to do the bushes, but they don’t seem to look quite like the real thing. I might try doing anime landscapes some more in the future. The ice was probably the hardest thing (still doesn’t look anything like it should), and figuring out how saturated to make the colors. Although, I’m not sure how good the river looks, either.
I did it in PhotoShop, although I do have a preliminary sketch in my scraps. I used the blur tool on... everything, to make the foreground lines look smoother, and to make the background look more backgroundy. I also used the smudge tool on some things, like the clouds, and the background. I used the pen tool on the outlines, after realizing that the lines would be so much better looking then drawing them with my tablet only (I did the lines freehand in the other PhotoShop version, in my scraps). Um... I flipped the picture, after realizing that he was turning the wrong way... (his opponent is near the pine trees, which can be seen in the references I used for the background) I used the scattering option in the brushes tab to make the leafs on the bushes, plus the blur tool or the smudge tool.
[link] this is a link to most of the references I’ve used.
I hope some people like this picture, ’cause it took so long... v_v