Hello, my name is Mathias Konrad Osland. I am a concept artist and illustrator from Norway. I contributed to Art War 3 and I am glad to be invited by Cubebrush to make a step-by-step tutorial on my illustration- Andrei, The Grim Hunter. 

References 

After reading the draft for the contest I immediately thought about something dark and gothic mixed with fantasy, so I went with that idea. I looked for various references I could use for my design and illustration. Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Dragon’s Dogma were titles I kept my eye on. I even listened to the title’s soundtracks to get into the mood.

With the references and mood in mind I made thumbnails and exploratory sketches. Nothing much to be said, I just had a bunch of fun.

Choosing a Side

I decided my character would be a villain. He is a fallen knight or some sort of heretic who roams the earth in limbo. I wanted it to be almost biblical and mysterious which fits well with the theme I was going for. I had two things in mind; a large pointy blade (sickle, scythe or hoe) and a character that felt emotionally torn down, which could manifest itself physically through depressed body language, torn clothes, desaturated colours, etc. 

I did something very unusual where I began my illustration before I had a clear design for my character. I was talking with my friends and we discussed how we could create a design which adheres to the illustration’s composition and could possibly strengthen it. I thought this would be fun to do and it left me some room to explore when I started painting. 
I wanted my character to hover over a victim whose soul would be taken. I decided a thurible would be a fascinating accessory to his design while he holds the scythe on the other arm towards the victim. 

I made my initial sketch, and this was the result. I liked the idea but disliked the composition. It had what it needed but I didn’t push it to its potential

Here I pushed the gesture and perspective further, making us feel that Andrei is hovering over us.

Composition

I was still not satisfied with the composition, I changed Andrei’s design to be sharper and more menacing. I initially wanted his body to be twisted and odd looking with elongated limbs. However, due to the extreme perspective it would confuse viewers to perceive the intentional proportional exaggerations as a mistake, so I scrapped it. I changed the view from third person to first person, so we see Andrei through the victim’s eyes. I liked this a lot more and so I stuck with it.

Satisfied with the composition I set up the background and refined the values. 

Color

Here I added some simple colours using the colour and overlay layer. I also added the shape of his weapon. It needed to have the right shape so it doesn’t break the composition.

Some more refinement and colouring. Really wanted that warm orange/red colour to dominate the painting. I thought that the victim’s soul would be fiery as it was sucked out of his hand. 

Added the thurible and some cinders and glow on the scythe. The red glow would be a repeating theme throughout the image. I also made Andrei a little warmer in the light, so he doesn’t blend into the background as much. This was done by simply changing the colours in Image, Adjustments, Colour Balance and pushing the sliders towards yellow and reds. 

Finishing Touch

Almost finished here. I added crows gliding over us as we view our death sentence. The crows have a symbolic meaning of death. They also help adding tension and movement within the illustration.

I added more glow and cinders to show that the victim in first person is heating up and burning.

I used rule of thirds for creating my focal points. I made sure not to be a perfectionist, so if the focal point doesn’t fit within the cross, that is okay. 

Final

This is the final stage. I made some last touch-ups such as adding another hand in there to increase depth. I also resized his shoulder pads and kneecap armour to be bigger in order to make his shape design more interesting. Other than that, it was just rendering. 
I had a lot of fun working on this piece and it taught me some important rules. The most important rule for me was to not be a perfectionist, which is hard coming from an illustrator, but it must be said, or you won’t get anything done.

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step tutorial!

You can follow Mathias on Instagram!