Digital Archives - RSC Arts

Bringing 80’s Icon RoboCop to Life with Procreate

Pencils, Ink, and Procreate: My Latest Illustration

I felt like illustrating the classic 80’s RoboCop this week. Really had fun with this piece. Trying some new techniques in Procreate with a textured background. I wanted it to look like a painting canvas.

I used the marker brush to start with the base and get the figure down. Not really defined just very sketchy. Then I refined RoboCop with the Procreate pencil brush. This has been my go to brush in Procreate for drawing.

To outline the pencils I used the dry ink brush. It’s a cool brush that I’ve noticed a lot of online artists use with Procreate. So of course I wanted to give it a try and guess what, I like it. The colors were done with a marker brush with a low opacity.

I’m really pleased with how this RoboCop illustration came out. My art is primarily in pencil or black ink. Working in Procreate has really helped me grow as an artist.

Related Products

If you’re a fan of RoboCop too, here are some products you might enjoy:
• RoboCop Trilogy BlueRay Collection
• RoboCop Movie Poster T Shirt
• RoboCop MAFEX No. 225 Action Figure

Affiliate disclosure:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links go directly to Amazon.com

Illustrating the Dark Side: My Take on the Grand Inquisitor

Portrait illustration of The Grand Inquisitor done in Procreate

Star Wars Inspiration: Sketching the Grand Inquisitor in My Style

I recently watched the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+ and was inspired to do an illustration of The Grand Inquisitor. He’s a cool looking Star Wars villain who first appeared in the Rebels animation series. On Obi-Wan we get a live-action portrayal by actor Rupert Friend. The Grand Inquisitor is the highest-ranking Inquisitor of the Galactic Empire. Inquisitors are not true Sith but Sith underlings that hunt surviving Jedi of Order 66. A Pau’an and a former Jedi Temple Guard, the Grand Inquisitor is a tough dude.

The live-action version of the Grand Inquisitor has a larger, rounded head than the Rebels version. The animated version is thinner with a more ovel shaped head which is more in line with how other Pau’an are usually portrayed. My illustration leans closer to the Rebels animation version but in my comic book art style.

The illustration was created in Procreate. I’m really enjoying this software on my iPad to create art. I first started out with some sketchy pencils for this portrait with the Procreate pencil brush. Then added shadows using a marker brush with a lower opacity setting. Changing the color of the brush to a bright Sith red, I added some highlights to the right side of his face. I imagined the light from a red lightsaber was giving off the Dark Side light. Then I colored in the Grand Inquisitor’s Sith tattoos with the red. Finishing off the portrait with the Dark Side iconic bright yellow Sith eyes. I added a grey ink wash for the background.

I’m really happy with the way this digital illustration came out. The more I work in Procreate the more confident I feel with it. This was a fun illustration inspired by the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Are there any shows that have inspired your art?

Related Products

Here are some Star Wars Grand Inquisitor products you might enjoy:
• Obi-Wan Kenobi Series on Blu-Ray
• Star Wars Rebels: Season 1 Blu-Ray
• The Black Series: Grand Inquisitor Figure

Affiliate disclosure:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links go directly to Amazon.com

Sketchbook to Screen: Exploring Procreate and Digital Coloring

Warrior Woman Digital Colors in Procreate

Coloring Adventures in Procreate with Green Haired Warrior Woman

I finally got the opportunity to mess around with Procreate. I bought an iPad this weekend, and the first app I bought was Procreate. I’m really excited to use it for digital illustrations. Or for coloring some of my older pencil illustrations.

Here’s a digital coloring in Procreate of a pencil drawing I did last year. The drawing is of Warrior Woman, Scarmother Vrynna from Legends of Runeterra. I found the image reference on Pinterest and really wanted to draw her in my sketchbook. Check it out in this blog post.

The colors I chose aren’t like the original illustration. I just wanted to have fun learning Procreate, so I gave her green hair. I tried blending the colors and added shadow and highlight. I am really enjoying Procreate and can’t believe it’s taken me so long to use it.

Related Products

Here are some cool iPad art products you might enjoy:
• Beginner’s Guide to Procreate
• Keyboard for Procreate
• Artist Glove for Drawing on Tablets

Affiliate disclosure:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links go directly to Amazon.com

Comic Book Digital Inking with Adobe Illustrator

Fantastic Four digitally inked in Illustartor

Comic Book Digital Inking with Adobe Illustrator

Here is a digitally inked Pinup of an awesome penciled piece of the Fantastic Four by artist Ariel Padilla. I found the pencils on his DeviantArt page and I knew I had to ink it. I used Adobe Illustrator so I could create a vector image. This way it can be reduced or enlarged with no pixelation of the image. This is actually my second piece digitally inked but the first I’ve done in Illustrator. My Batman 2.0 character redesign was my first digitally inked piece but for that I used Photoshop. I have used Illustrator in the past to create illustrations, logos, advertisements, and marketing but this was the first time I incorporated my graphic design skills into inking.

I have a Wacom tablet but for this digital inking, I used only my mouse and the pen tool. So basically the piece is all straight vector anchor points. This illustration took about 5 hours, which is longer than I thought it would, but it was fun and a nice practice piece. On my next Illustrator ink, I plan on using the Wacom tablet and the brush tool. Right now it is all about having fun and learning to use the tools I use in my graphic design work in my comic book artwork. My next step will be to create flats for these inks and maybe color them too.

Original Pencils of Fantastic Four by Ariel Padilla

Here are the original pencils by Ariel Padilla.

Want to see the steps I took to create the digital inking? Check out my blog post: Comic Book Digital Inking Techniques with Illustrator Vector Anchor Points

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.