Hi! My name is Loïc bramoullé and I'm a French concept artist and filmmaker who’s now living in Brazil with my wife. Last year we watched “Guerras Do Brazil” History documentary on Netflix, that explores the main wars the country saw since its inception until today. The message is that there's an endless circle of violence, from enslaving and slaughtering the indigenous and African population during the colonization. Until today where people get killed for racial reasons, privilege protection, soy, and meat production increase ect..) 

I was especially captivated by the story of a 100-years kingdom built by around 20.000 escaped slaves deep in the forest, and the war they fought against ruthless mercenaries– even bringing a cannon this far from any road, to destroy the capital’s fortifications. 

The most famous historical character of this story is Zumbi, as he’s seen by Brazilians until today, as the symbols of their fight to live their life free from oppression.

The scene I decided to depict is Zumbi’s final moments, when the Bandeirantes, these mercenaries using indigenous slaves, reached the last of the Kingdom’s residents, after having tortured Zumbi’s closest friend for the information that they were hiding behind a waterfall. 

What I wanted to describe was this moment when Zumbi committed his last stand, probably knowing he would be decapitated an instant after, to be displayed in the region’s capital as a symbol of dominance from the King of Portugal. 

Another reference that helped me get familiar with the history of Brazil was the graphic novel “Angola Janga” by Marcelo D’Salete (a historian), exploring the story, downfall, and heritage of Zumbi. I also had some memories of Bahia (a northern region of Brazil deeply tied to the Afro-American History of the country) from trips there a few years back. Like the striking traditional fully white clothes and connection to African traditions. 

After researching some more details, I grabbed some pictures of statues of Zumbi from the north of Brazil to have a more precise idea of how he’s traditionally represented. I wanted to make something rather fantastic to be in Art War’s theme, but still historical enough as the story deserves it.  

From there, I started to draw on paper, as it’s for me the best medium to materialize an idea. I think it’s way faster than sketching first in photoshop and produces more authentic ideas, as there is less technical seam. These sketches don’t need to be good looking, their purpose is to quickly materialize ideas to be able to visually judge and pick the ones that can work:

With some more fleshed-out ideas I then explored them in Photoshop, having a few style references on the side, and wanted to try some Overwatch exaggeration in the silhouette for example. To be more efficient when designing in PS, I start on a 15% opacity layer so I can’t lose my focus on details:

Then I design each element on 3 separate layers, with a color overlay. This way, I can easily erase all the clothes without touching the body. I can still add white strokes to design some elements as the color overlay is in lighten mode:

Once I’ve drawn and erased and re-drawn each element until it feels harmonious, I hide the color overlays and paint a solid color to judge the final silhouette:

These sketches made me realize the message would be more impactful if he had this peaceful look on his face, like if he knew his actions would be remembered. I then wanted to check what my idea for the illustration would look like in practice, so I did a quick color sketch. I made the first pose but was struggling to deal with everything at once, design, perspective, anatomy. So I did a quick puppet in Daz to get the posing established before designing the sketch:

My priority then was to finalize the design, as for now it was too mundane and a little original. I needed more ideas, like taking inspiration from African god, Orishas, as Zumbi was apparently seen by his subjects as the God of War. 

I used the same technique, first silhouettes to focus on stylizing the shapes and anatomy, then separated layers for line-art to focus on details and props and expressions: 

From these iterations, I could pick the ideas that would have the most potential together, trying to not overdo it, keep things harmonious and balanced. That’s the point where I asked a few friends for feedback, as it helped iron out a few issues or things that I was too used to see to get rid of.

Then to kickstart the design of the illustration, I decided to do a 3D base. I could better plan the space in order to make the scene around Zumbi tell more of his story.

I started with a quick Gravity Sketch, as it was faster than modeling:

I then spent a bit of time in blender to think about the composition and lighting, to make both Zumbi imposing and the soldier silhouette barely visible but menacing. While the last residents of the Kingdom would read very late for the viewer, as a diffuse background detail:

After a 3D render, it’s always good to slap a grey layer at 80% opacity, to be able to design things clearly above it:

From the line art, it’s then possible to cut layers for all the elements, so you can start treating them separately, paintover, photo-bash. Keeping the line-art in soft light to always see it just enough to guide you, until you eventually merge it with each layer for the final paintover.

Hope that was interesting. If I had to redo it I would probably spend more time designing the final illustration in 2D. This would allow me to be less constrained by the 3D render and the design decision made in 3D. For example, the soldier’s posing, Zumbi’s posing, details like rocks that might feel better if planned in 2D and rendered afterward with photobashing and repaint. 

Follow Loïc bramoullé here.