Making of ‘Elguir’

Inkognit delves into his 'Silver Giant' personal project to takes us through his process for creating the guider of souls using Photoshop...

Back in 2015 an idea got stuck and it grew into a world building scenario which is now the project that I give every bit of free moment I have called "The Silver Giant" - the reasons behind such name I can't share yet. During this time, I get to develop the world, races, creatures, spirits, and even plants. What I'll share with you today is the thought process behind the Elguir, created with Photoshop.

Step 1: The beginning

As with all the things that are created, the Elguir also had a beginning. It came in the form of the 101st daily. The Ideas and feelings that came with sketching this character sparked my interest and the process of merging him with the story that was written began. But first there were a lot of questions that needed answering. Why such features? What would be the use of crystals? What was their scale? How did the portals worked? Were they rare?

The 101st daily

Step 2: Questions Answered

Word by word, after a few rewrites, this is what I have now on my notes of who are the Elguir: "Small and cunning, they guide the souls towards other realms. Along the land can be found many portals, yet they are very well hidden. Only the Elguir can cross them and strange things happen to those who try. They carry a big glowing pendant that attracts souls. There is a secret village where the Elguir live, inside a deep glacier with walls covered in crystals and portals all around. In the center there is a fountain close to the floor, that is used to cleanse the crystals."

Still taking advantage of the Daily Challenge to explore some more

Step 3: Moments

It was great to explore their life, the caretakers of crystals, how they slept and even picture some cuter moments of such an elderly race. Putting more layers on the character and fleshing out ideas on how they move, their expressions and so on.

Exploration of moments

Step 4: Color tests

With the need to develop some more portfolio work, I chose one of the dailies and began to drop some color. I had one idea in mind but I always like to keep myself open to mistakes and happy accidents. That's why the colors look a bit off from each other with exception of the robe. But the original idea still suited better the story so I went with it.

Explore with colors, ideas might come from it

Step 5: Process

Now it was just a matter of cleaning the line and rendering the character, but this time, I really wanted to stay true to the original color palette that I chose so I left it visible. It's quite easy for me to get lost when using colors.

The process for painting the Elguir

Step 6: Final

More or less this was the process that took for the creation of the Elguir. It's not always that efficient or streamlined but the results turned out pretty good to what I had envisioned. If you have any question or doubt, don't hesitate to contact me. Hope this was helpful.

The Elguir, the guider of souls

Related links

Check out the making of 'Katsu'
Inkognit on ArtStation
Inkognit on Instagram