Create a game boss, Blizzard-style

Jie Gao uses a range of lighting and colouring techniques to illustrate a Blizzard-style end-of-level video game boss

Jie Gao shares his lighting and colouring methods.

hen I receive an invitation from a commissioning editor I begin thinking of what I want to show and what are the best aspects of my art. Out of all the styles I draw in, fantasy is my favourite. I always really enjoy the process. In this case I really want to show how to use Photoshop to make a fantasy illustration.

WIllustration is used everywhere in the game industry and most of the time designers and illustrators use Photoshop to create this art – as do I!

This example here took me around 20 hours. I was aiming to paint a boss character standing in front of the Holy Well, which produces some mysterious liquid. The boss is tasting the liquid, while some of the crows are also interested in sampling it. The liquid is made from the bodies of another species he defeated in battle.

A night-time setting helps make the atmosphere look more mysterious. I used the green, blue and orange lighting to build this image. Most of the shadows are produced with these colours.