Ihaven’t had much time to create personal art lately…the most current personal illustration that I created is “Chronos” which was created for Depthcore XLIII – Time. The entire process of the illustration took me about 3 weeks to complete – and this is exactly why I can’t create personal art in large quantities anymore – they just take so long!

Ok, it’s just me. For a long while now, I’ve been such a perfectionist with myself that it makes me put many more hours into an illustration, even though the general audience wouldn’t even notice the details. Do I call this self discipline, or do I call this retarded? I want to believe that this is a good thing. I’m sure I can work faster and be more carefree but somehow I can’t get myself to overlook any flaws. I noticed that I do this with client-based work as well because I just can’t seem to get myself to give up quality over simply delivering something “worth the time.” I could be doing a $1,000 job or a $10,000 job, but I still find myself putting in 101% of my efforts.

Random rant aside – I want to talk and show you guys the creative process of the “Chronos” illustration. Before I do, here is the concept of the piece:

Chronos – the father of time and the guardian of the end of time (as depicted here). Chronos himself is a being composed of both organic and mechanical matter. In the core on his chest, holds the world as we know it – galaxies upon galaxies.

He wields a scythe where the sands of time are located, and the 2 different asian characters on each side of the scythe’s head mean life and death. It is Chronos who controls life and death.

I was inspired to create an illustration like this long ago from playing Final Fantasy and other RPGs but I never coughed up the guts to do it until recently. I just knew that it would take so long because it would be so time-consuming because it of how elaborate I envisioned it. Of course, I was not wrong, and this did take me 3 weeks to create.

Chronos Reference & Inspiration Board

I started off by putting a reference and inspiration board together. Drawing something of this nature is new to me, so I knew I would need much inspiration along the way if I wanted this to look like how I envisioned. I searched for some Final Fantasy artwork because it was what inspired me – I’m also a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series itself because I’ve played through most of the games growing up. Then I looked for references to an old man’s face, one that would seem like he could be called “the father of time.” It turns out, the key is a serious expression and a huge beard! Once I got the inspiration going, I was ready to start designing my character.

Use the slider buttons to view the progress of the illustration.

The lineart took about a week’s time to create in Photoshop (freehand + pen tool) because of all the details. I definitely ran into some difficulties because as I said previously, I’ve never drawn anything like this…and it was hard to envision how certain things would look at certain perspectives. I’d say it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done as an artist. But in the end, I was very happy with the final lineart and I think it looks awesome as is without color!

Use the slider buttons to view the progress of the illustration.

Coloring the Chronos illustration took approximately 2 weeks. I was only able to do a small section every day and it was a slow process overall. This was also done in A2 sizing so it’s quite a lot of detailing. I think what would have helped was if I started shading the entire image instead of each section at a time to get the overall mood and lighting down. However, maybe I’m a bit OCD, but I can’t seem to leave an area unpolished before moving on…that’s why I worked on this in sections. I spent the most time refining the lighting of the piece and mood – it was crucial for me to get that down. I wanted it to look outworldly yet remain realistic…I think I was able to achieve that in the final version so I was quite happy.

Chronos - The Father of Time

Closeups of the "Chronos" Illustration

In the final version, I added some depth of field, as well as some smoke to add to the depth and atmosphere of the piece. Overall I can say that I’m very happy with my illustration and it was an accomplishment as an artist as well – I definitely pushed myself hard for this and I’m pleased to have been able to make this polished piece. I actually haven’t gotten much love for this piece – which tends to happen when I’m not creating abstracts or my usual work, but personally I’m proud of it and I’m actually going to print this on a huge scale and frame it on my wall!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this, please feel free to share this with others!