Of the characters in Badgerblood, Kor was one of the most difficult to visually nail down. Guess he prefers the shadows to fame.
This elusive, scarred protagonist has my husband’s eyes and a bit of my brothers’ grins. The latter became more apparent after I sketched Kor and tried my hand at digitally painting him. The development with the grin is particularly meaningful to me as I lost a brother to cancer when I was 13 and he’s the one I’m reminded of most in this smile. It’s exciting to think his grin might be just a tiny bit immortalized in Kor now. To be honest, I didn’t plan that. An excellent Pinterest reference provided the smile and it worked.
Below is the progress of the sketch, from the original pencil drawing to touch-ups and digital painting in Photoshop.
Note: This was my first real attempt at digital painting, and drawing is still a work in progress for me. Thanks to Steven for coaching me in color choice, gradients, and Wacom tablet use.
